The sign of a new rapprochement? The presidents of China, Xi Jinping, and Russia, Vladimir Putin, met this Thursday in Uzbekistan as part of a regional summit. It was the Chinese leader’s first trip abroad since the start of the pandemic and the first meeting between the two presidents since Russia invaded Ukraine.
During the interview, the Russian president denounced Western attempts to “create a unipolar world.”
“We highly appreciate the balanced position of our Chinese friends on the Ukraine crisis,” he added.
Vladimir Putin also renewed Moscow’s support for Beijing over Taiwan, where visits by US officials in recent weeks have drawn China’s ire. “We condemn the US provocation,” he said, stressing that Moscow adheres to the “one China” principle, which wants Taiwan to be an integral part of Chinese territory.
Meanwhile, Xi Jinping assured his Russian counterpart that China wanted to assume its “great power” role with Russia and “inject stability and positive energy into a world plagued by chaos.”
Converging political interests
The last meeting of the two leaders dates back to February, when Vladimir Putin attended the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. They have since talked on the phone, about the war in Ukraine in particular. This meeting in Uzbekistan aims to “highlight the convergence of interests between Beijing and Moscow,” Antoine Bondaz, a researcher at the Foundation for Strategic Research and a specialist in China, told BFMTV.
This convergence is “old”, he continues: “it is explained above all by identical conceptions of the question of national security. For these two regimes, political security is a priority, in particular by ensuring that the democratic and liberal government regimes do not are, in China and Russia, considered as possible alternatives”.
For Camille Brugier, a researcher specializing in China at the Strategic Research Institute of the Military School, their “main common problem” is “US unilateralism.” The two countries seek, for example, “to get out of the omnipotence of the dollar.” It is in this context that the Russian gas supplier Gazprom announced in early September that China would henceforth settle its payments exclusively in rubles and yuan, instead of the dollar.
Country Specific Topics
The two countries also have their own interests in this meeting. For Russia, it is simply about “showing that it is not isolated” on the international scene in the context of the war in Ukraine, explains Camille Brugier to BFMTV.com. On the Chinese side, the researcher identifies three main issues.
First of all, it is about “showing solidarity with Russia in the face of European and American sanctions”, which China sees as an illegitimate tool of international relations. Xi Jinping also wants to “show his interest in the non-Western world” by making the first trip since the pandemic to Uzbekistan and meeting his Russian counterpart there. Finally, he wants to “signal to Russia that he does not want any misunderstandings in their common zone of influence.”
In fact, China’s support in the context of the war in Ukraine remains “limited”, it is mainly political but at the moment not very commercial or military, stresses Camille Brugier: “it is worrying for China because Russia could do the same in their common zone of influence”, in Kazakhstan, for example.
However, since the February 24 intervention, China has refused to use the word “invasion” to describe the military operation launched by Moscow in Ukraine. The Chinese power has also never condemned the Russian invasion and blames the conflict on the United States and NATO.
Source: BFM TV
