Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping agree to expand Russia-China military coordination
- Moscow and Beijing say they will expand their joint military exercises, conduct regular joint maritime and air patrols and work together on space programmes
- The two nations strengthen their ties soon after the US criticised China for being the ‘primary contributor to Moscow’s war in Ukraine
China and Russia on Thursday pledged to step up their military ties, despite Western pressure on Beijing to rein in Moscow from advancing in Ukraine.
In a joint press conference in Beijing, Chinese President Xi Jinping said he and visiting Russian leader Vladimir Putin had agreed that “a political settlement of the Ukrainian crisis is the correct direction”. Xi also said China would like to “play a constructive role” in restoring peace in the European continent, as the Chinese government had stated when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
The meeting between Xi and Putin came soon after the Chinese president returned from his first European visit in five years last week. During the visit, Xi was urged by French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to use his influence on Russia to end the war in Ukraine and to control the flow of dual-use goods to Moscow’s military.
In a joint statement released on Thursday, Beijing and Moscow said they would “further deepen mutual military trust and cooperation” by expanding scales of joint military exercises, conducting regular joint maritime and air patrols, and strengthening their coordination under bilateral and multilateral frames.
According to the statement, China and Russia will work together in areas such as artificial intelligence, telecommunications, the Internet of Things, open source technologies, cyber and data security, and radio frequency coordination – fields considered to have security implications.