China’s Xi to Meet Putin in Moscow Next Week
Visit is set to highlight China and Russia’s closer ties amid Ukraine war
Chinese leader Xi Jinping plans to visit Moscow next week for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the latest marker of the deep ties between Beijing and Moscow as the war in Ukraine continues into its second year.
During the visit, which will take place March 20-22, the two leaders will discuss the conflict in Ukraine, military-technical cooperation and energy trade, the Kremlin said Friday. Several bilateral documents will be signed during the visit, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying the two leaders would have an informal lunch on March 20 before holding talks the following day.
“We have no doubt that the upcoming talks will give a new powerful impetus to the development of the entire complex of bilateral cooperation,” said Yuri Ushakov, a foreign-policy adviser to Mr. Putin, quoted by Russian state news agency TASS.
“There is no leader in these relations, there is no follower, there are no any restrictions, there are no any forbidden measures,” he said. “We are talking about strategic interaction between two partners who trust each other and in many ways share the same goals, the same tasks.”
Mr. Xi’s visit was arranged in response to an invitation from Mr. Putin, according to a one-sentence statement issued by a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman. In a routine briefing, a ministry spokesman described Mr. Xi’s visit as a trip of friendship, cooperation and peace that will deepen mutual trust between China and Russia.
As the Ukraine conflict has increased Russia’s international isolation, Beijing has provided diplomatic support to Moscow and an economic lifeline amid Western sanctions. China has scooped up Russian oil and gas, and sold microchips and other advanced technologies that can have military uses.
The planned visit would be Mr. Xi’s first international trip this year and showcase his close personal relationship with Mr. Putin—a key driver of China-Russia relations. The two men have met 39 times since 2013, the year that Mr. Xi took office as China’s largely ceremonial president, months after he became Communist Party chief.
People familiar with Chinese foreign policy have said Mr. Xi is likely to step up overseas travel this year, in part to repair relations strained by geopolitical tensions and his Covid-induced hiatus from trips, The Wall Street Journal previously reported. Mr. Xi secured this month a third term as China’s head of state, a role he has used to front an increasingly assertive diplomacy and pursue what he sees as his country’s rightful place as a great power.
Mr. Xi’s Russia visit comes amid frayed relations between China and the U.S., which has been increasing pressure on Beijing over its stance on Ukraine even as tensions intensified over Washington’s recent shootdown of what it called a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon. American officials have said that China was considering providing arms to Russia, and warned Beijing against doing so. China, for its part, has criticized the U.S. for exacerbating the conflict by supplying weapons to Ukraine.
Beijing has sought to hold the middle ground on the war, while casting itself as a responsible global actor. It has called for peace, issuing in February a 12-point position paper outlining its views on how to end the conflict. But Chinese officials have also declined to criticize Russia’s invasion, instead describing the war as the “Ukraine crisis” and portraying the U.S. as the chief instigator of the conflict.
“We highly appreciate the restrained, measured position of the Chinese leadership on this issue,” Mr. Ushakov said. He said that Moscow was aware of China’s plan on how to end the conflict.
China boosted its self-styled image as a neutral mediator and calming influence in international affairs this month, when Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed to restore relations in a deal brokered by Beijing.
Mr. Xi also plans to speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a meeting that is expected to take place virtually, reflecting Beijing’s effort to play a more active role in mediating an end to the war in Ukraine, the Journal has reported.
After a tumultuous period during the Cold War, when Beijing and Moscow differed over ideology and geopolitical influence and their forces engaged in bloody border skirmishes, their relationship has grown closer in recent decades. Messrs. Putin and Xi share the view that the U.S. has sought to limit their global ambitions, a vision that has increasingly underpinned Russia-China ties.
On the economic front, China has needed Russia’s vast energy resources to fuel its fast-growing economy while Russia has been searching for markets outside the West.
Messrs. Xi and Putin last had an in-person meeting in September 2022, on the sidelines of a regional summit in Uzbekistan. When Mr. Putin visited China in February 2022 to attend the Winter Olympics, weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine, Moscow and Beijing said they struck a “no-limits” partnership.
On a 2019 trip to Moscow, Mr. Xi hailed the countries’ deepening economic cooperation as a “key pillar of our relations.” That year, the two countries opened the $55 billion Power of Siberia pipeline delivering Russian natural gas to China
The war in Ukraine further boosted economic ties.
China-Russia bilateral trade is expected to exceed $200 billion soon, up from $140 billion in 2021. Much of the growth has come as Beijing bought up Russia’s commodities, helping to offset some of the declines in Moscow’s oil-and-gas exports to Europe, formerly its biggest market. Russia was able to divert crude to China and other markets, though the price Moscow gets for its oil has fallen.
Moscow has also increased the usage of China’s yuan, including conducting some of the energy trade in the Chinese currency and increasing its share in its sovereign-wealth fund.
Write to Georgi Kantchev at georgi.kantchev@wsj.com and Chun Han Wong at chunhan.wong@wsj.com