Chinese leader Xi Jinping is on a three-day visit to Russia, where a number of meetings with the President of Russia are planned Vladimir Putin.

For Xi, this is his first visit to Moscow years later, this is an opportunity to increase your authority in the international arena.

On the other hand, this is an opportunity for Putin to prove that she is on his side. China… against sanctions imposed on him by the West because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

For Westerners, this visit is a challenge that raises questions and fears as everyone wonders how closer Beijing and Moscow can get.

The newspaper “New York Times analyze the phase in which the relationship is now Russia – Chinaproviding answers to five key questions.

Allies of China and Russia?

China and Russia are not officially allies in the sense that they are not officially committed to defending each other militarily in the event of an attack or threat. However, Beijing and Moscow are close strategic partners, and their relationship has even deepened over the last 12 months of the war in Ukraine, the NY Times analysis notes, as Russia has become isolated from many other countries in the conflict. time.

Chinese officials say Sino-Russian relations are currently at an “unprecedented high level.” This strategic corporate Sino-Russian relationship is fueled by a common goal that both countries share: the goal of weakening American power and influence, according to a New York Times analysis.

However, it is worth noting that China’s relations with Russia have not always been as warm as they are now. China and the Soviet Union were rival powers in the 1960s, and in 1969 they even came to blows, fighting over sovereignty and control of disputed territory along their border. China and Russia are currently competing with each other as both countries claim greater influence in Central Asian regions, including former Soviet republics such as Kazakhstan And Uzbekistan.

How close is the relationship between Xi and Putin?

Right before the start war in Ukraine, in February 2022 Xi and Putin have publicly stated that relations between their countries are not limited to borders. The Chinese leader sometimes presented the Russian president as his best friend. During the economic forum in Russia in 2018, the two of them baked pancakes and drank a glass of vodka. For his 66th birthday in 2019, Putin gave Xi a cake and a huge box of ice cream when they met in Tajikistan. In an article published in the last 24 hours in China’s People’s Daily newspaper, Vladimir Putin said he has “the warmest relationship” with Xi and that they have met about 40 times in recent years.

What are the economic relations between Russia and China?

Economic ties between China and Russia have grown significantly since Russia’s first invasion of Ukraine in 2014, when it annexed Crimea. After 2014, China helped Russia avoid sanctions imposed by the Obama administration. Against the background of even tougher Western sanctions against Russia due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, China is supplying Russia with many goods that Moscow previously purchased from Western countries (see computer chips, smartphones, raw materials for weapons systems, etc.). It is worth noting that the volume of bilateral trade between Russia and China increased last year against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine.

What does Putin want from China?

Putin needs China to support the Russian economy, which has been hit by Western sanctions. For the Russian leader, China is increasingly becoming a lifeline, especially in terms of investment and trade. After the West cut imports of Russian hydrocarbons last year, China has helped offset those losses by importing more energy from Russia.

At the start of the war in Ukraine, Russia requested military equipment and financial assistance from China, according to US officials. US officials recently stated, some 12 months later, that China was indeed considering providing weapons to Russia, but Beijing dismissed these claims as untrue.

China, however, refrains from condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine, although Chinese foreign policy theoretically requires respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity as a principle. China tried to present itself as neutral with regard to the war in Ukraine, but adopted the Russian narrative, accusing the US and NATO of starting this conflict.

However, so far China has not fully supported Russia. The unrest and instability caused by this war could threaten China’s growth and complicate its efforts to strengthen international economic ties. In this regard, we recall that during the meeting held by Xi and Putin in September 2022 in Uzbekistan, Putin himself publicly acknowledged that Beijing had “questions and concerns” about the war in Ukraine.

What does Xi want from Russia?

The Chinese leader wants Putin to side with him as a like-minded ally in countering US and Western hegemony. In an article he published in a Russian newspaper ahead of his visit to Moscow, Xi emphasizes that China and Russia must work together to overcome the security challenges of “hegemony” and “bullying” other (apparently Western) poles of power.

Now Xi has taken a tougher stance on what he calls American efforts to contain the rise of China, portraying his country as a nation under siege — but so has Putin in recent months amid events in Ukraine. Xi also urged Chinese industry to reduce its dependence on Western technology and hailed China’s rise as proof that it does not need to embrace Western political values.

China is buying advanced weapons systems from Russia, and the two countries have increased the number of joint military exercises. Last year, when the American President Joe Biden was in Tokyo, China and Russia sent bombers over the seas in northeast Asia as a show of force.

According to the New York Times