Xi Jinping and Putin meet in Beijing with the Ukraine crisis in the background

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two years it took

to meet in person with another foreign leader.

It has been in Beijing, because the Chinese president has been since January 17, 2020 without setting foot outside his country.

This time there was a good excuse to bring Xi out of his isolation behind a screen: the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics.

The host welcomes around thirty colleagues who arrive from Argentina to the United Arab Emirates.

But the first on the guest list is the Russian

In the midst of the crisis in Ukraine, in the setting of the Olympic Games surrounded by an

led by the United States, all the spotlights are on the face to face of the two candidates to establish a new world order that follows her rules.

Putin landed at noon in a pollution-free Beijing on the day that China presents its great sporting event to the world, in which Russia participates under the acronym ROC (Russian Olympic Committee) after starring in a series of doping scandals.

Just 50 years ago, in the midst of the Cold War, Beijing witnessed a historic handshake between US President

and the father of the People's Republic of China,

. "I like the right-wingers," Mao said as he greeted Nixon at his private residence. The Chinese leader did not get along with the Soviets either. Some historians refer to that visit as the week China began opening up to the rest of the world.

Half a century later, the geopolitical panel could not be more disparate.

The United States and China are at odds in what many have been calling a new Cold War for some time.

And

.

His solid alliance with the West has culminated in Putin's visit to Xi Jinping.

A meeting in which what happens in Ukraine has been on the table.

The US State Department urged Beijing to use its current leverage over Russia to push for a diplomatic solution to military pressure on Ukraine's borders.

For the past two weeks, some Beijing officials have been saying that Putin would not dream

They trust that he will respect the traditional truce adopted by all UN members.

Although, the last time Beijing hosted the Olympic Games, in the summer of 2008,

And Putin then also traveled to Beijing to attend the opening ceremony.

Outside China, analysts do not rule out a similar move, although the truth is that the deepening and interested relationship between China and Russia makes Putin more cautious when it comes to angering his Asian partner.

Beijing officials say privately that, in the face of the Ukraine crisis, they uphold their sacred maxim of "not interfering in the internal affairs of other countries."

This is what they did in the previous Russian aggression in 2014. A Chinese balancing act that made Putin throw himself into his arms.

In May of that year, shortly after the invasion of Ukraine, the Russian president traveled to Shanghai to sign an unprecedented agreement to export gas to China.

A common rival: the USA

Instead, the latest statements from the Asian giant on the conflict have turned in favor of Moscow's position.

China, above all, shares with Russia many open fronts with a common rival, Washington.

They are united by US sanctions, but also by their ambition to expand their international influence.

For this reason, Beijing publicly seconded Russia's "security concerns" regarding NATO.

Last week, the foreign ministers of both countries said they had coordinated their positions on issues of common interest, including Ukraine.

A few days ago, in a phone call with US Secretary of State

, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi reiterated that Russia's security concerns must be taken seriously and that regional security cannot be guaranteed by expansion of military blocs, a clear reference to

In January, Beijing also supported Russia's deployment of troops to Kazakhstan to quell unrest.

With this latest meeting, Putin and Xi have held

since 2013, most of them by videoconference.

The leaders have put aside for the moment their divisions over territorial claims to present a common front.

Internally, both have used authoritarianism to get rid of and stop all those they see as a threat, as well as change the laws to perpetuate themselves in power.

Looking abroad, their armies have carried out

in recent months .

By sea and air.

Crossing the Pacific with warships, flying over the Sea of ​​Japan (called the East Sea by South Korea), and doing naval maneuvers with Iran in the Gulf of Oman.

Their

also going through a very good time.

In January, Chinese customs announced that the volume of business with Moscow had reached a record 146.88 billion dollars in 2021, 35.8% more than the previous year.

And these days, with Putin and his team visiting Beijing for the Olympics, the two countries are expected to sign up to 15 new agreements.

The biggest is a

that would see Russia double its exports to China

, its biggest export market after the European Union: $79.3 billion in 2021. Oil and gas to an energy-hungry China accounted for 56 %.

Now it hopes to close up to fifty billion cubic meters more of natural gas transported each year through a gas pipeline, the Power of Siberia 2, which has been in operation for three years and runs 4,000 kilometers through Mongolia.

Another important economic issue on the table, as analyzed by the Reuters agency in a report, is that both China and Russia want to increase the global role of their currencies and

China has been using its new Silk Road initiative, known in English as the

, to promote trade in the yuan and has signed local currency swap agreements with many participating countries, including Russia, which added the yuan. to a list of reserve currencies in 2015, and as of 2021, about 13% of its international reserves were in Chinese currency.

"We are constantly expanding agreements in national currencies and creating mechanisms to offset the negative impact of unilateral sanctions," Putin said in an interview he gave to the Chinese agency Xinhua hours before landing in Beijing.

The Russian leader reiterated that they would resist the pressure of Western sanctions and that the two nations

" on most international issues.

Putin also spoke of democracy: "Our countries play an important stabilizing role in today's challenging international environment, promoting greater democracy in the system of international relations."

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