Russia: Xi Jinping's state visit to Moscow, a "journey of friendship, cooperation and peace"

Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin in Samarkand on July 15, 2022 during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit. AP - Alexandr Demyanchuk

Text by: Stéphane Lagarde Follow

3 min

Xi Jinping is expected in Russia on Monday, March 20 for a three-day state visit. The Chinese president eagerly awaited by Vladimir Putin increasingly isolated on the international scene and now under an international arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court. For its part, Beijing, which is strengthening its bilateral ties with Moscow, is also increasingly assuming its role as a great diplomatic power...

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from our correspondent in Beijing,

The Chinese president displays this ambition in a message sent to Russian media on Monday. "My visit to Russia," Xi wrote, "is a journey of friendship, cooperation and peace," reads the text published by the Xinhua news agency. There is support for the Russian ally, but also a very personal relationship between Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin.

The calendar is important, the context too

This is the fortieth time that the Chinese leader has met face-to-face with the man he called in 2019 "his best friend", and it is especially his first trip since he won a third term in the annual parliamentary session. Their last meeting was last September at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit. I look forward to working with President Putin, writes Xi Jinping, to jointly adopt a new vision.

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A common vision, but there is also the context of the war in Ukraine and the Europeans, important for Chinese exports. China is mediating the conflict. There was this 12-point Chinese peace initiative for Ukraine.

A plan received with skepticism on the side of the Westerners. Because if China displays on paper an "objective and impartial" position - as Xi Wang Wenbin, one of the spokesmen of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs assured during his daily press briefing last Friday - it is clear that, so far, Chinese neutrality has been especially benevolent for Russia. "There has been a global escalation of the Ukrainian crisis," Xi said, without using the word 'war,' and China supports efforts to peacefully resolve the crisis."

The Chinese president has still not contacted his Ukrainian counterpart directly since the beginning of the war. A first contact could take place with this passage in Moscow, but for the moment nothing is mentioned on this subject in the official reports.

When diplomacy rhymes with good business

China is the biggest buyer of Russian oil at knock-down prices, against currencies essential to finance Moscow's war effort. China is also accused by Washington of providing non-lethal support to Russia, which the Chinese authorities deny.

Economic exchanges exploded last year... and the Chinese state media have multiplied concrete examples on the subject with reports on the Sino-Russian friendship bridge over the Amur River inaugurated last June, and then new freight train lines that left Langfang near the Chinese capital two weeks ago, from the province of Henan in central China this weekend, and even a brand new direct Beijing-Moscow freight train loaded with 55 containers, 9000,18 km and <> days of travel, loaded with auto parts and construction materials and which will return with food products from Russia according to the newspapers here.

Read also: The war in Ukraine transforms the map of China-Europe trade routes

A figure to conclude: Sino-Russian trade reached 190 billion dollars last year. They could cross the $200 billion mark this year.

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Read on on the same topics:

  • China
  • Russia
  • Xi Jinping
  • Vladimir Poutine