In his first foreign visit since his third re-election as president, Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived Monday in Moscow, where he was received by his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
The visit will last 3 days, and will witness, according to the Kremlin, the signing of many agreements, especially in the field of economic cooperation, and the two leaders opened it by stressing the strategy of the relationship between their countries and the importance of their cooperation for what they described as the rebalancing of the world order.
While welcoming his guest's plan to stop the war in Ukraine, Xi stressed China's interest in developing its relationship with Russia, which he described as a strategic partner whose country shares similar goals of justice and equality in the world.
Regarding the US position on this visit, former US National Security Council member Charles Caption explained in his interview with the program "Beyond the News" (2023/3/20) that America realizes that this visit is important for Putin, especially after the International Criminal Court indicted him for war crimes in Ukraine.
Caption said Xi's official visit indicates that China wants to strengthen its partnership with Russia, especially in terms of trade and the purchase of Russian energy products, which means supporting the Russian economy, thus continuing its war on Ukraine.
At the same time, China is trying to play a greater role in international diplomacy, especially after mediating between Saudi Arabia and Iran and presenting a proposal to stop the war in Ukraine, and Caption said that Xi wants to appear as a globally influential person because he is pushing for peace.
According to him, China was surprised by the degree to which its reputation deteriorated due to its support for Russia and the Corona pandemic, and therefore it is currently working to improve its external image in front of the world through its trade transactions as well as diplomatic pressure on international issues.
From a Russian point of view, Alexander Gornov, a professor at the Moscow Institute of International Journalism, considered that Russia and China constitute the majority in today's world, as the world has entered the stage of multipolarity and got rid of America's hegemony over it, stressing that Russian-Chinese relations have been good since the 17th century, and this is confirmed by the historical stations between the two countries.
Gornov stressed that the two countries will sign two important documents, one related to partnership in a new world whose old concepts are changing, and the other centered on economic cooperation between the two countries.
He also indicated that Russia is ready to consider Ukraine's status as a sovereign state if the United States considers it so, and linked Moscow's withdrawal from Kiev to Washington's withdrawal from it, indicating that it is also interfering in Ukrainian territory as is the case with Russia.
But Kabsh disputed the Russian guest regarding the strength of the relationship between Beijing and Moscow, considering that history testifies to their conflict during the Cold War, stressing that the war launched by Russia on Ukraine is what brought the two countries together at the moment, describing this rapprochement as just a marriage of convenience more than a long-lasting partnership.
He noted that there is a big contradiction between China's call to respect the sovereignty of states over its territory versus Putin's unwillingness to exit Ukraine.