Beijing, Riga A quick glance in the direction of Moscow, a friendly wave on the red carpet, then China’s head of state Xi Jinping boards the plane bound for Beijing on Wednesday morning. He had been in the Russian capital since Monday, visiting his “dear friend” Vladimir Putin. The visit attracted a lot of international attention, mainly because of the war in Ukraine.
Expectations were high. Observers believed it was possible that Xi could actually act as a mediator and persuade Russian President Putin to give in.
But nothing came of it: instead, the meeting made it clear that Russia can count on China’s support for now. The two nuclear powers agreed on an even closer strategic and economic partnership.
“Now there are changes that haven’t happened in 100 years,” Xi Putin said in farewell. “Together we are driving these changes,” he continued. Putin agreed.
The two heads of state want to herald a “new era” in bilateral relations, and in the past few days they have demonstrated a solidarity in Moscow.
On Tuesday, Xi and Putin signed far-reaching agreements on their cooperation until 2030. The main focus was on a stronger economic partnership. Under pressure from Western sanctions, Russia is to receive more electrical engineering from China, and China is to receive more cheap gas and oil. To weaken the US dollar, payment transactions between the two countries and with other trading partners are to be further switched to yuan and rubles. The two powerful neighbors thus consolidated their strategic partnership for a “new world order”.
Xi demonstratively stands by Putin’s side
Western politicians, however, were disappointed with the results of the meeting. With a view to Ukraine, too, Xi demonstratively sided with the Russian government. Putin had praised the Chinese proposal for a “political solution to the Ukraine crisis”.
The document, which China presented in February, calls for a ceasefire and peace talks, among other things. However, it does not contain any concrete proposals as to what a peace plan might look like and what role China would play in it. There are also no plans to withdraw Russian troops from Ukraine.
China and Russia have agreed to cooperate more closely.
(Photo: AP)
The proposal was therefore met with skepticism in the West. In the US, it is said that a ceasefire now would ratify the territorial gains of the Russian aggressor.
“He and his regime are parroting Russian propaganda,” said the National Security Council’s communications director, John Kirby. There is a kind of “marriage of convenience” between Moscow and Beijing, and Putin sees China as a “potential supporter”. He does not believe that the meeting between the two heads of state “raises great expectations of an early end to the war,” Kirby said.
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Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said the visit was “an opportunity for China to fulfill its responsibility and role as a permanent member of the Security Council”. However, she noted that in statements by both governments on their websites “the fact that we have experienced a war of aggression in the world in the last year has not even been mentioned in other words, as it is otherwise called, but as if the entire last year had not existed”.
According to Baerbock, China makes “no contribution to peace”
According to Baerbock, the primary task of the permanent members of the UN Security Council is to serve world peace. Unfortunately, instead, China submitted a position paper that did not name the attacker and the victim “and therefore, in my view, cannot make any real contribution to peace”.
Roderich Kiesewetter, CDU chairman for foreign policy and former army colonel, also criticized China’s actions on Monday. He wrote on Twitter that China is not a neutral state and has no interest “in a quick end to the war, but in slow wear and tear of the West”. Instead, China is pursuing its own major political goal with the “incorporation of Taiwan”.
On Tuesday evening, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned China against arms deliveries to Russia against the background of the meeting. Such a move would mean supporting and prolonging an illegal war, Stoltenberg said. There are indications that Russia has requested weapons and that Beijing is considering such a step. So far, however, no evidence has been seen that China is supplying Russia with weapons.
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In fact, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had already confirmed at the end of February that he wanted to meet with Xi to discuss Beijing’s plans to end the war. At the time, Zelensky said the proposal showed China’s involvement in the search for peace — although China’s plan does not call for a Russian withdrawal.
Zelensky’s adviser Mykhailo Podoliak commented on the meeting on Twitter. Even the transition to trading in yuan will not allow the Russian Federation to “buy a ‘victory’, implement the ‘peace plan’ on its own terms and resolve significant legal, financial and physical problems,” Podoliak said.
According to experts, the now even closer alliance between China and Russia is not likely to be short-lived. “If you wait for cracks in this relationship, you will have to wait a long time, or at least until the protagonists change,” political analyst Manoj Kewalramani from the Indian think tank Takshashila warned before the meeting.
With agency material
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