The Russian president Vladimir Putin announced on Friday (12/30) that he wants to strengthen military cooperation with China and that he expects his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping will pay an official visit to Russia in spring 2023, in a public show of solidarity from Beijing as the war in Ukraine.
During his opening remarks from a video conference between the two leaders broadcast on state television, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated: “We are waiting for you, dear Mr. President, dear friend, we are waiting for you next spring for an official visit to Moscow».
He declared that the visit “will show the world the closeness of Russian-Chinese relations”.
Speaking for about eight minutes, Putin said the importance of Sino-Russian relations as a stabilizing factor is increasing and that he aims to deepen military cooperation between the two countries, while praising the resistance of Moscow and Beijing in the face of Western “pressures”. .
“In the context of unprecedented pressures and challenges from the West, we are defending our principled positions”Putin said as reported by the Athens News Agency.
According to him, “the coordination between Moscow and Beijing on the international stage (…) serves to create a just world order based on international law.”
“Military and technical cooperation, which contribute to the security of our countries, and maintaining stability in key regions have a special place” in Russian-Chinese cooperation, he underlined.
Then the Russian president underlined that the two forces have “the intention to strengthen the cooperation between the armed forces of of Russia and China”.
In his response, which took about a quarter of the length of Putin’s statement, Xi said that the China is poised to increase strategic cooperation with Russia against a backdrop of what it called a “difficult” situation in the wider world.
Russian energy exports to China have increased significantly since the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine, with Russia now China’s largest single oil supplier.
However, Beijing has so far been careful not to provide Moscow with direct material support that could trigger Western sanctions against China.
Source: News Beast
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