Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday expressed to his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, his desire to strengthen bilateral military cooperation, considering that Sino-Russian relations are now “the best in history.”
Putin was speaking at the start of a video conference with Xi Jinping, which the Kremlin said was aimed at discussing “regional problems” in the framework of the strategic partnership between the two powers, and at the end of a year marked by the Russian invasion. from Ukraine in February.
“In the context of unprecedented pressure and provocation from the West, we are defending our principled positions,” Putin said.
The Russian leader described the current relations with China as “the best ever,” saying they “endure all tests with dignity, demonstrate maturity and stability, and continue to expand dynamically.”
China’s refusal to condemn the invasion of Ukraine and impose sanctions on Russia, like other countries, has further tightened ties between Beijing and Moscow.
However, Beijing has rejected Putin’s veiled threats to use nuclear weapons in response to military aid provided to Ukraine by Western countries.
Before the invasion of Ukraine, Putin and Xi met in Beijing on February 4 and issued a joint statement denouncing the influence of the United States and the destabilizing role of Western military alliances in Europe and Asia.
In the days that followed, Chinese diplomacy accused the United States of stoking the threat of war with statements about the imminence of an invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops.
Unlike Iran and North Korea, which the United States says provided military aid to Russia in the Ukraine conflict, Beijing has avoided such involvement.
Opening the meeting with Xi, Putin said Moscow-Beijing relations are a “model of cooperation between great powers in the 21st century.”
“We also see the causes, the advances and the logic of the transformations in the global geopolitical scenario”, he added.
The Russian leader stressed that a “special” place in relations is occupied by military-technical cooperation between the two countries, which “contributes to guaranteeing the security of the two countries and maintaining stability in key regions.”
“Our goal is to strengthen cooperation between the Russian and Chinese armed forces,” said Putin, who has expressed his intention to meet Xi in person in the coming months.
“Dear Mr. President, dear friend, we hope to see you in Moscow for a state visit next spring,” he said.
This visit, he stressed, will demonstrate to the world the strength of Russian-Chinese relations and will be “the main event of the year in bilateral relations.”
Xi, for his part, said Beijing stands ready to increase strategic interaction with Russia, which offers both sides “development possibilities.”
According to a Russian television translation of the Chinese leader’s remarks, he said the people of both countries “benefit from the bilateral global partnership.”
The Chinese leader, who began his third term as president in 2022, also highlighted that throughout the year he had two face-to-face meetings with Putin, and that he spoke by phone “on several occasions” with the Russian leader, who went to the presidency in the year 2000.
“We are in close strategic contact,” Xi told the Kremlin leader, adding that relations with Russia have shown “resilience” in the “new era” the world is experiencing.
Announcing the meeting, which will continue behind closed doors, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov, quoted by the Russian state agency TASS, said that Putin and Xi would discuss the most acute regional problems, both of which are “closest” to Russia. . , as the “closest to China”.
On bilateral economic relations, Putin said today that despite “illegitimate restrictions and direct blackmail by some Western countries”, Russia and China managed to secure record trade levels, which grew “around 25%”.
“With this dynamic, the goal we set ourselves of reaching US$200 billion (in trade) by 2024 can be achieved early,” he said.
Source: TSF
