Chinese leader Xi Jinping traveled to Moscow this week as a peacekeeper in Ukraine. But the summit with President Vladimir Putin proved that his immediate priority is to strengthen relations with Moscow to counter the US campaign against the rise of China. The two men’s talks over Ukraine have been overshadowed by Xi’s solidarity with Russia as a political, diplomatic, economic and military partner. The two superpowers have come together to oppose American dominance and the world order shaped by the West.

The two leaders meet quite often. In September they were in Uzbekistan for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit and before that they had a brief meeting before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Relations between the two countries are quite close, despite the fact that neither of the leaders mentioned the alliance, but the occasion for this meeting is special. Russia, isolated from the Western world and under constant economic pressure, needed China’s embrace to balance its economic deficit. Beijing, for its part, confirmed that economic relations between the two countries remain “strong” and also announced further expansion of the Russian energy market. Russia has promised to welcome more Chinese companies to its soil. Alexander Gabuev, a researcher at the Carnegie Endowment for World Peace, commented after the meeting between the two leaders: “This is a statement from Russia that “don’t worry, we are here,” but also a statement to the West that China is not a country in which you can say what to do. Hints like “Putin is a bad boy, don’t play with him” don’t work on her.” What’s more, the meeting came just days after the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued a warrant for Putin’s arrest.

The “hidden meaning” of the meeting, according to analysts, is that over the past 13 months, Russia’s need for support for China has increased dramatically.

Last month, China unveiled a comprehensive “peace plan” for Ukraine. The war was said to be at the center of the agenda and at the meeting on Tuesday. However, for Gabuev, this is a “fig leaf” that covers up the real goal: deepening and tightening the multifaceted relations between the two countries. In addition, hours after the two leaders’ statements, US Department of Defense spokesman John Kirby stated that “if China wanted to play a supporting role, it should have asked Russia to stop the invasion” and that “After Xi and Putin’s meeting, it doesn’t look like war is coming soon.” will end.” Although Xi has spoken out in favor of peace, it is not certain that he is interested in an immediate end to the war. What he certainly cares about is keeping Putin in power, as replacing him with a pro-Western government would put a damper on good relations between the two countries in an age of geopolitical redistribution as he seeks to dominate Asia.

Of the sovereign ambitions of China, which is slowly and steadily moving towards building an alliance that will compete with the United States and its allies and in which he will be the head, was also shown by the fact that Mr. K. The Chinese Communist Party was more “commensurate” with the aspirations Vladimir Putin. While the Russian president has been touting for months that a major new gas pipeline will be ready by 2030 to bring natural gas to China via Mongolia, Xi said that is not currently on the agenda. The “hidden meaning” of the meeting, according to analysts, is that over the past 13 months, Russia’s need for support for China has increased dramatically. And there is no exactly the same reaction from the other side. Last year, weeks before the order to invade Ukraine was given, the two countries issued a joint statement saying, among other things, that their friendship was “limitless.” Last Tuesday’s announcement was decidedly more subdued.

“The idea of ​​Russia as a subservient partner, deep in China’s pocket, with no other options, is very beneficial if China believes it is in a long-term confrontation with the US,” Alexander Gabuev commented. The polarization between the US and its allies on the one hand, and Russia and China on the other, seemed even more ingrained this week.