Xi Jinping of China, Russian President Vladimir Putin meet today in Beijing amid Ukraine stalemate

The top two will attend the Olympic opening ceremony on Friday night.

Beijing:

Chinese President Xi Jinping gets ready for his first face-to-face meeting with a world leader in nearly two years on Friday as he hosts Russia’s Vladimir Putin, and the two draw close. as tensions rise with the West.

Mr. Xi has not left China since January 2020, when the country was grappling with the initial Covid-19 outbreak and shutting down the central city of Wuhan, where the virus was first detected.

He is now poised to meet more than 20 leaders as Beijing opens the Winter Olympics, which they hope will be a victory of soft power and shift the focus away from the status quo devastated by a boycott. Diplomacy and fear of Covid.

A top Kremlin adviser said Xi and Putin would meet in the Chinese capital before the countries issue a joint statement reflecting their “shared views” on security and issues. is different.

The two boxers will then attend the Olympic opening ceremony on Friday night.

Rising tensions with the West have cemented ties between the world’s largest and most populous nation, and Putin was the first foreign leader to confirm his presence at the opening ceremony on Thursday. Six.

He praised Russia’s “model” relationship with Beijing during a December phone call with Xi, calling his Chinese counterpart a “close friend.”

For its part, China called on the United States to respect Russia’s “reasonable security concerns” over Ukraine.

Moscow is seeking support after the deployment of 100,000 troops near the border with Ukraine prompted Western nations to warn of an invasion and threaten “serious consequences” in response to any attack. of Russia.

China received ample support from the Soviet Union – the forerunner of the modern Russian state – after the establishment of the Communist regime in 1949, but the two socialist powers then disagreed over their differences. ideological difference.

Relations were back on track when the Cold War ended in the 1990s, and the pair have pursued a strategic partnership in recent years that has seen them collaborate closely on trade issues. commercial, military and geopolitical.

Those ties were further strengthened on the eve of the Olympics with Moscow denouncing a group of Western nations boycotting diplomacy and efforts to “politicize sport”.

The boycott by countries including the United States and Britain is because of what Western governments see as widespread human rights abuses in China.

Other leaders who will enjoy Xi’s hospitality during the Olympics include Egypt’s Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman, Kazakhstan’s Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and Poland’s Andrzej Duda.

A total of about 21 world leaders are expected to attend the Olympics.

According to the Economic Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index, a majority of those leaders rule in undemocratic regimes, with 12 labeled as “dictators” or “hybrids”.