China’s Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin hold talks in Beijing

Xi and Putin hold talks just days after US President Donald Trump made an official visit to China. A meeting between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin has started in Beijing, Chinese state media report. Xi welcomed Putin to the Chinese capital on Wednesday, shaking hands with the Russian leader outside the Great Hall of the People before their talks, video by Russian media showed. Before entering the Great Hall, Putin and Xi walked down a red carpet, rolled out to greet the Russian leader, and stood as a military band played both their countries’ national anthems. Putin began the talks by hailing the “strong, positive” momentum in cooperation between Russia and China, according to Russian media. “Even amid unfavourable external factors, our cooperation and economic cooperation is showing strong, positive momentum,” Putin told Xi. Addressing Putin, Xi lauded the “unyielding relationship” between China and Russia. “We have been able to continuously deepen our political mutual trust and strategic coordination with a resilience that remains unyielding despite trials and tribulations,” Xi told Putin, according to China’s Xinhua news agency. The Chinese leader also addressed the US-Israel war on Iran, telling his Russian counterpart that further conflict was “inadvisable” and a ceasefire was necessary. “A comprehensive ceasefire is of utmost urgency, resuming hostilities is even more inadvisable and maintaining negotiations is particularly important,” Xi said, according to Xinhua. Al Jazeera’s Katrina Yu, reporting from Beijing, noted that Putin’s visit and that of the recently concluded trip by US President Donald Trump to China were very different. Putin, she said, is marking 25 years of the Sino-Russian friendship, has visited China dozens of times, and met with Xi on more than 40 other occasions. “So this visit will really be about deepening existing coordination and cooperation,” Yu said. “We are expecting that the two sides will update each other on the situation in the Middle East, as well as Ukraine. No doubt, Xi Jinping will also talk to Putin about what was discussed with Donald Trump last week,” Yu said. Putin is being accompanied by a large delegation of Russian businesspeople and government leaders, and the Kremlin has announced that the two leaders will sign some 40 different agreements, Yu said, covering everything from the economy and tourism to education. “But I think for Putin, the main topic of discussion with Xi Jinping is going to be on energy security,” Yu said. “Since the war in Ukraine, any gas sales that were previously heading to Europe – that is all dried up – and Russia is in desperate need of revenue to replace that, especially since we are in the fifth year of the Ukraine war,” she added. In a video address released before meeting Xi, Putin said Russia and China were prepared to cooperate with each other on the “core interests of the two countries, including the protection of sovereignty and national unity”, the Reuters news agency reports. Both countries are actively expanding ties in economy, politics and defence, Putin said, adding that “a close” and “strategic” connection between Moscow and Beijing was playing “a stabilising role” in global relations. “We are not aligning against anyone, but working for the cause of peace and universal prosperity,” Putin said.