Chinese President Xi Jinping has arrived in Moscow

The plane carrying Chinese President Xi Jinping has landed in Moscow. Report RIA Novosti. Xi Jinping’s visit to Russia will last from March 20 to 22. This will be Xi Jinping’s first overseas trip since his re-election for a third term as head of state.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reported that Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin will discuss China’s peace plan for Ukraine at their scheduled meeting at 4:30 pm local time (2.30 pm Italian time). Peskov added that the United States “also prevents a decline in hostilities” in Ukraine. “The State Department and the National Security Council are talking publicly and officially about this.”

A few hours before their meeting in Moscow, the Presidents of Russia and China, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, today published parallel editorials in the press of their interlocutors. – Putin in People’s Daily, Xi in Rossiyskaya Gazeta – to emphasize their strategic alliance and explain what Putin called Beijing’s “constructive role” in “resolving the Ukrainian crisis”.

Putin said he had “high hopes” for President Xi Jinping’s visit to Moscow, the first since he launched his “special military operation” against Ukraine in February 2022. With regard to the current events in Ukraine, to understand their true origins and causes, we welcome China’s willingness to play a constructive role in resolving the crisis. wrote the Russian president, who, according to the program released by the Kremlin, should have a preliminary informal face-to-face meeting with Xi this evening and another official tomorrow, which will be followed by a joint declaration and the signing of various cooperation agreements and documents. .

Xi’s article, which focuses more on the war in Ukraine, aims to strike a difficult balance between advocating peace and avoiding outright criticism of the war in Ukraine.
Russia. Beijing has denied US and NATO allegations that it is considering supplying weapons to aid Moscow’s aggression against Kiev, which Putin continues to insist is “fueled by the West”. Xi said China’s peace plan, which provides for respect for “the sovereignty of all countries” and an end to any sanctions, is “constructive” and promotes a “political solution,” for which “there are no simple solutions to complex problems.” But ending the war would ensure “the stability of global production and supply chains.”

And the solution can be found “if everyone is guided by the concept of common, universal, common and sustainable security, and dialogue and consultations continue in an equal, prudent and pragmatic manner,” Xi wrote again, summarizing Beijing’s position on the issue. The Chinese president added that economic partnership is a “priority” for China and Russia, stressing that the two sides aim for an effective “comprehensive partnership” in a world threatened by “acts of hegemony, tyranny and bullying.”

Putin noted that Russia and China are fighting “common threats”, their relationship is “steadily growing stronger” and is at “the highest level in their history”. He said Xi’s visit is a “historic event” that “reaffirms the special nature of the Russian-Chinese partnership.” Then he describes the Russian President Xi as a “good old friend” with whom “we have reached an unprecedented level of trust in our political dialogue, and our strategic cooperation has become global in nature and is at the gates of a new era.”

In Russia from today through Wednesday, President Xi Jinping will strengthen his ties with Putin, an increasingly reliable partner of Beijing but also an increasingly unpredictable one. On Friday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry presented it as a “mission for peace” and linked it to Moscow’s war against Ukraine. Bolstered by the unprecedented third consecutive term he had just handed as president of the People’s Republic after the Communist Party’s historic third-tier secretariat in October, Xi decided to start the overseas visits of the new decade from Moscow, just as he did 10 years before he once had conquered the country’s institutional pinnacle.

His meeting with Putin will be his 40th in person, underlining the continued importance of his understanding of Russia even if the trip threatens other foreign policy goals. Including those that prevent China’s relations with the United States from spiraling out of control and to protect relations with Brussels, with which Beijing is trying to strengthen economic and trade cooperation. China still needs access to Western markets, technology and capital to return to robust growth, the true source of the CCP’s legitimacy. On the other hand, the Kremlin is increasingly relying on the dragon to buy oil and gas in the face of Western sanctions, but it claims its ability to maneuver.

“Just before the start of the state visit, Putin made his first trip to the occupied Ukrainian city of Mariupol, more than a symbol of the Russian invasion, in another apparent attempt to signal that he has Beijing’s support,” a diplomatic source told ANSA. However, rather than push Putin to withdraw from Ukraine, Xi will—according to some observers—use the meeting with the Russian president to develop the bilateral strategic partnership. In order to cement the image of a neutral party interested in peace, Xi should speak with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, for the first time since the start of the Russian invasion.possibly after his trip to Moscow, The Wall Street Journal reported in recent days.

The White House is preparing for the visit in a wait-and-see situation: “We’ll see what emerges from this meeting,” says White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby. Russia has achieved so far” and “give Putin more time”. Since Moscow attacked Ukraine more than a year ago, Beijing has avoided condemnation by maintaining an ambiguous stance. Any significant distance from Moscow would have a backlash that China could not afford: it is possible that the communist leadership sought to better balance the twin goals of stabilizing relations with Europe and ensuring that Russia did not lose the war, and remaining aligned with China. , which is essential to Xi’s plans for a new global arrangement at the expense of the United States. “Xi will refuse to put his name on anything that could cause an anti-Western economic backlash,” the diplomatic source added. While Hu Xijin, former editor of the Global Times, the popular nationalist newspaper the People’s Daily, observed, “The United States provides reason and energy to continue the Ukrainian war.” Instead, Hu wrote on Twitter, “China makes excuses and hopes to end it.”