China-Russia relations: Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin will have ‘several’ meetings, including visit to China this year, says ambassador
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Amid tensions with the West, Beijing and Moscow have moved closer in recent years.
Xi and Putin declared a “no-limits” partnership between their countries in Beijing in February 2022, three weeks before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which soon drew a raft of sanctions from the United States and its allies.
In March last year Xi flew to Moscow for a state visit. In October, Putin, who has been shunned by the West since the war, returned Xi’s gesture by attending the Belt and Road Summit in Beijing.
The summit was his second overseas trip since the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest in March on charges of illegally deporting Ukrainian children.
The two presidents have also spoken over the phone from time to time, most recently on Thursday to mark Lunar New Year, when the pair pledged to keep close communication and join efforts to create a “multipolar, fairer world order”, according to the Kremlin.
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The two countries have increased their economic relationship, while also boosting cooperation in areas such as the military, artificial intelligence and space.
Last year, China’s total trade with Russia hit a fresh record high of US$240 billion, up 26 per cent from the previous year, making Russia mainland China’s sixth-largest trading partner, after the United States, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
China has been Russia’s biggest trading partner since 2010.