We are your true friends, “Xi tells Putin while Trump cuts Russia

The warm words attributed to Xi Jinping In the Chinese state media they clearly intended to stop the speculation that the Trump administration, which has sought a rapid approach with Russia, could open a gap between Beijing and Moscow.

The call occurred on the anniversary of the Russian Invasion of Ukraine in 2022, after three years in which China would have a lifeguard Russia helping Putin to fall economic isolation from the West and the struggles on the battlefield.

Shortly before the invasion of Ukraine, XI and Putin announced an association “unlimited”.

Since then, China has sustained the warlike machinery of Russia with petroleum purchases and double -use technologies exports.

XI and Putin also share an ideological opposition to the West.

The Chinese blame the United States to stop their global ambitions and promote a restructuring of the global order to weaken the Domain of Washington.

“History and reality show us that China and Russia are good neighbors who will not move away, and true friends who have passed together for good and bad, they support each other and develop together,” Xi said, according to the media, according to the media Chinese state.

XI said the relations between China and Russia were not “affected by any third party”, in what appeared to be an indirect reference to the United States.

And he said that the external policies of the two countries were there for the “long term”.

The Kremlin issued an equally cordial statement after the call, describing the conversation of Xi and Putin as “warm and friendly.”

In a rejection of the idea that Trump could divide the two countries, the Kremlin added:

“The leaders emphasized that the Russian-Chinero Foreign Policies link is the most important stabilizing factor in world affairs,” and said the relationship “was not subject to external influence.”

The call was the second between XI and Putin in just over a month, and there was less than two weeks after Trump changed the US strategy to Russia by maintaining a phone call with Putin and apparently putting on his side in the war in the war Ukraine.

Trump blamed Ukraine to instigate the Russian invasion, called President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine a “dictator” and excluded Ukraine from the peace negotiations in the initial stage.

Trump’s decision to get so in favor of Putin in the war has fed the speculation that Washington aimed to divide Russia and China, a country that many senior administration officials Trump consider a much more serious threat .

Some incoming officials in the Trump administration have suggested to reduce the levels of US troops in Europe, which serve as a bulwark against Russia, so that Washington can concentrate their military efforts on defense in the defense against China.

Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogghe said to a panel this month in Munich that the Trump administration hoped to “force” Putin to wear down his ties with North Korea, Iran and China.

However, analysts have expressed their skepticism about the possibility that China and Russia move away in what has been called a “Nixon upside down”, in reference to the approach of President Richard Nixon to Beijing in 1972, which aimed to exploit the worsening of relations between China and the Soviet Union.

Unlike 53 years ago, the links between China and Russia today are in a high level, with few perspectives of internal political change in either of the two countries.

“There is a strategic and geopolitical alignment for this relationship,” said Sergey Radchenko, a professor at Johns Hopkins Advanced International Studies Schoolwhich specializes in Chinese-ruse relationships.

“They don’t agree on everything, but I think they realize that they need each other.”

Radchenko said that Beijing was probably uncomfortable with Trump’s attempt to court Putin, but that Putin was unlikely to see his best attended interests when he aligned himself more closely with the United States in relation to China.

“The idea that Putin can be manipulated as a kind of weapon against China, I think it is naive by the Trump administration,” he said.

It is not clear how much China knew about Russia’s plans in the period prior to the invasion of Ukraine by Putin three years ago.

A Western Intelligence Report issued shortly after the invasion concluded that senior Chinese officials had told senior Russian officials in early February who did not invade Ukraine before the end of the Winter Olympic Games in Beijing.

But intelligence did not necessarily indicate that direct conversations had been held about an invasion between Putin and XI.

China has denied any previous knowledge of the invasion, and Beijing did not evacuate its embassy or its citizens of Ukraine in the days prior to the beginning of the war.

“The claims that China knew, consent or tacitly supported this war are pure misinformation,” wrote Qin Gang, the Chinese ambassador to the United States at that time, in an article in March 2022 in The Washington Post.

XI plans to visit Moscow in May to attend the commemorations of the Soviet Victoria over Nazi Germany In World War II, according to Russian state media.

Putin has also invited Trump.

Monday’s call between Chinese and Russian leaders occurred while Kremlin tries irresponsible.

“Last week, the president talked about his desire to inform a series of government partners about contacts with Americans,” said Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskovin a call with journalists on Monday.

“According to those intentions, that process began today.”

The Kremlin added in a statement that Putin had informed XI during his call on “recent Russian-American contacts.”

He also said that China had “expressed its support for dialogue between Russia and the United States that has begun, as well as its willingness to contribute to the search for a peaceful solution to the Ukrainian conflict.”

Putin also spoke with Tayikistan leader on Monday, and Russian Foreign Minister, SERGUÉI LAVROVhe met with the president of Türkiye, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

In the comments published by the Chinese state media, XI said he was “pleased” that Russia had initiated negotiations with “other parts” to end the “Ukrainian crisis.”

China has not yet described the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a “war.”