A close ally of Russian President Vladimir V. Putin met with China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, on Wednesday, a sign of the countries’ alignment amid Russia’s growing political exclusion. international isolation.
Dmitri A. Medvedev, a former Russian president and prime minister, held an unannounced meeting with Xi in Beijing as Chinese and Russian naval ships began a week-long joint exercise in the China Sea. Winter.
China remains a significant, if largely silent, counterweight to international criticism of Mr. Putin. Russia supported China’s claim to the democratic island of Taiwan and trade between the two countries has increased as the United States and Europe impose sanctions and seek to strangle Russia’s economy.
“Russia has tried to present a better relationship with China than it actually does,” said Yun Sun, director of the China program at the Washington-based Stimson Center. “It shows how desperate they were and China didn’t help as they wanted.”
Mr. Medvedev is a longtime Putin ally and has emerged as one of the government’s most hawkish voices advocating a hard line against Ukraine and its allies, primarily the United States. He is the vice chairman of Putin’s security council and the head of Putin’s ruling party, United Russia.
Medvedev said in a short video address after meeting Xi that he discussed “cooperation between the two ruling parties” as well as “our strategic partnership in all areas”. “.
For the Kremlin, the meeting served as useful hours of reverse programming before President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine is scheduled to meet with President Biden. On Monday, Putin personally met the President Alexander G. Lukashenko of Belarus to discuss strengthening economic and military ties with close ally Russia.
In Beijing, Mr. Xi told Mr. Medvedev that relations between the two countries “have stood the test of international changes” and that their partnership is a “long-term strategic choice of both sides”. , according to Chinese state television. Central television station.
Xi stressed that China actively supports the idea of holding peace talks on Ukraine, adding that China hopes “relevant parties will exercise reasonable restraint” during the crisis.
Military exercises, annual naval exercises held since 2012, are limited to one year starting with China and Russia committing “unlimited” partnership on the eve of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Since then, Beijing has continued to pour money to buy Russian oil as the United States and Europe imposed sanctions. Although Mr. Putin mentioned “Questions and concerns” pointed out by Mr. Xi when they met face-to-face in September, the two countries’ economic and military ties continue to deepen.
The exercises, which will involve a Russian guided-missile cruiser and Chinese destroyers, will include joint air defense and anti-submarine operations aimed at improving coordination and cooperation. between the two navies, according to a statement from the foreign ministries of both countries.
Military cooperation between the two countries has been scale up over the past decade even though Russia and China are not official allies that would stand up for each other in war. Both see the United States as their main security threat and want to establish an alternative to an international order led by Europe and the United States.
During the discussion in Moscow in October, Mr. Putin praising the state of relations with Chinasays they have “reached a level of openness, mutual trust and efficiency unmatched in recent decades.”
But China has shown a reluctance to publicly support Russia’s besieged war effort, shunning arms supplies or actively supporting Moscow’s efforts to evade Western sanctions.
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