Putin invites Xi Jinping to Russia in 2023 and asks him to "deepen military cooperation"

• Direct All the last hour of the war in Ukraine

While Russia launches a new wave of missiles across Ukraine, and China is fighting the biggest explosion of Covid infections ever seen, the top brass of these two countries have held a videoconference meeting to end the year boasting of a close relationship .

The first minutes of the meeting have been broadcast on Russian television, which have captured the invitation that Vladimir Putin has extended to Xi Jinping to visit Moscow in the spring of 2023. If he did, it would be the biggest public show of support for Xi since he Putin will launch the invasion of Ukraine.

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Putin and Xi Jinping, face to face: "China is willing to collaborate with Russia as great powers to lead a changing world"

• Writing: LUCAS DE LA CAL (Correspondent) Beijing

Putin and Xi Jinping, face to face: "China is willing to collaborate with Russia as great powers to lead a changing world"

War in Ukraine.

Xi Jinping tells Vladimir Putin that China will continue to support Russia on "sovereignty and security"

• Writing: LUCAS DE LA CAL (Correspondent) Beijing

Xi Jinping tells Vladimir Putin that China will continue to support Russia on "sovereignty and security"

"We are waiting for you, dear Mr. President, dear friend, we are waiting for you next spring on a state visit to Moscow," the Russian leader said.

"The visit would demonstrate to the world the

," he continued.

Putin stressed that relations between the two countries were "the best in history" and threw down the gauntlet to Xi, saying his goal was to "deepen military cooperation" between the two countries.

"We share the same views on the causes and logic of the ongoing transformation of the global geopolitical landscape," Putin added.

"In the face of unprecedented pressures and provocations from the West, we defend our principled positions and defend not only our own interests, but also all those who defend a truly democratic system and the right of countries to freely determine their own destiny."

On Xi's part, the only thing made public so far from his speech by the Kremlin has been to confirm that China is ready to "increase strategic cooperation with Russia."

We will have to wait for Beijing to take its reading out of the conversation to find out more details about the responses of the leader of the second world power.

The virtual meeting was held after the armies of both countries finished their

East China Sea, very close to the coasts of Japan and Taiwan.

Specifically, in a cape off the coast of Zhejiang province, south of Shanghai.

This year, despite Russia's invasion of Ukraine, China has continued to reach out to Russia to intensify military exercises as part of its alignment with the liberal Western political order led by their great common rival, the United States, which has time trying to pressure its NATO allies to toughen their stance towards Beijing.

Countries like

the Chinese president in recent weeks to

to get Putin to stop the attack on Ukraine.

From the beginning, the Russian attack put China in a difficult situation, trying to balance a solid alliance with the Kremlin while maintaining its foreign policy of unconditional defense of Ukraine's sovereignty.

Beijing, especially facing the inside gallery, has never hidden its tacit support for Putin.

But neither has he broken his red line when territorial issues arise and he does not want to hear about pseudo-referendums in occupied territories.

China relies on the diplomatic doctrine that President Xi Jinping launched in 2014: non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries.

Last September, during a regional summit in Uzbekistan, Xi told Putin to his face that China was not at all comfortable with the Russian attack.

A wake-up call that amplified during the following weeks the speech of Chinese officials of respect for the sovereignty of Ukraine, but that did not change the line of support for the Kremlin maintained by the official media of the Chinese regime.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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• Russia

• Vladimir Putin

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• Xi Jinping