BEIJING (Dispatches) - China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin have pledged a “new era” of partnership between the two most powerful rivals of the United States.
Xi greeted Putin on a red carpet outside the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, where they were hailed by marching People’s Liberation Army soldiers, a 21-gun salute on Tiananmen Square and children waving the flags of China and Russia.
China and Russia declared a “no limits” partnership in February 2022 when Putin visited Beijing just days before he sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine, triggering the deadliest land war in Europe since World War Two.
“The China-Russia relationship today is hard-earned, and the two sides need to cherish and nurture it,” Xi told Putin.
“China is willing to ... jointly achieve the development and rejuvenation of our respective countries, and work together to uphold fairness and justice in the world.”
Xi has told Putin the two have the chance to drive changes the world has not seen in a century, which many analysts see as an attempt to challenge a U.S.-led global order.
China and Russia face their own challenges, including a slowing Chinese economy and an emboldened and expanding NATO.
Washington casts China as its biggest competitor and Russia as its biggest nation-state threat.
Putin’s visit comes weeks after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken flew to China to raise concerns about China’s support for Russia’s military.
That trip appears to have done little to dent Xi’s deepening relationship with Putin.
By picking China for his first foreign trip since being sworn in this month for another six-year term, Putin is sending a message to the world about his priorities and the strength of his personal ties with Xi.
The joint statement was described as deepening the strategic relationship, and mentioned plans to step up military ties and how defense sector cooperation between the two nations improved regional and global security.
It singled out the United States for criticism.
“The United States still thinks in terms of the Cold War and is guided by the logic of bloc confrontation, putting the security of ‘narrow groups’ above regional security and stability, which creates a security threat for all countries in the region,” the statement said. “The U.S. must abandon this behavior.”
It also condemned initiatives to seize assets and property of foreign states, a clear reference to Western moves to redirect profits from frozen Russian assets or the assets themselves, to help Ukraine.
State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel told a daily news briefing that China “cannot have its cake and eat it too” in backing Moscow.
“You can’t want to have good, further, stronger, deepened relationships with Europe and other countries while simultaneously continuing to fuel the biggest threat to European security in a long time,” Patel said, calling Beijing’s help in reconstituting Russia’s defence industrial base “deeply problematic”.
Putin, who arrived on Thursday for a two-day visit, said he was grateful to China for trying to solve the Ukraine crisis, adding that he would brief Xi on the situation there, where Russian forces are advancing on several fronts.
Describing his initial talks with Xi as “warm and comradely”, he outlined sectors where the two countries were strengthening ties, from nuclear and energy cooperation to food supplies and Chinese car manufacturing in Russia.