During a meeting between Chinese President and Russian Prime Minister, President Xi Jinping reiterated Beijing’s backing for Moscow’s “core interests,” contributing to the deepening economic and diplomatic collaboration between the two nations.
Chinese President Xi Jinping offered Beijing’s support on Moscow’s “core interests” at a Wednesday meeting with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin.
China and Russia have ramped up economic and diplomatic cooperation in recent years, growing even closer since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine despite Beijing’s insistence that it is neutral in that conflict.
Mishustin’s trip this week is the highest-level visit by a Russian official to China since last year’s invasion of Ukraine.
Xi told Mishustin China and Russia would continue to offer each other “firm support on issues concerning each other’s core interests and strengthen collaboration in multilateral arenas,” according to a readout by the official Xinhua news agency.
China is Russia’s largest trading partner, with trade between them reaching a record $190 billion last year, according to Chinese customs data.
Ministers from the two countries signed a series of agreements after the talks on service trade cooperation and sports, as well as on patents and Russian millet exports to China.
Last year, China became Russia’s top energy customer as Moscow’s gas exports plummeted due to a flurry of Western sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine.
Analysts say China holds the upper hand in the relationship with Russia, and its sway is growing as Moscow’s international isolation deepens.
The leaders of both countries are “brought together more by shared grievances and insecurities than by shared goals”, Ryan Hass, a senior fellow at Washington’s Brookings Institution and a former White House official, told AFP.
In February, Beijing released a paper calling for a “political settlement” to the Ukraine conflict. Still, Western countries said it could enable Russia to hold much of the territory it has seized.
Xi invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to visit Beijing during their summit in Moscow in March.
Miroslava Salazar with AFP
