“Dear friend”: Russia’s Vladimir Putin meets with China’s Xi Jinping

Virendra Pandit 

New Delhi: A day before US President Joe Biden lands in Israel on Wednesday, his bete noire Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing, the media reported on Tuesday.

The occasion was China’s Belt and Road Initiative Forum Summit which Putin is attending for a third time. However, his meeting with Xi Jinping could be overshadowed by the Hamas-Israel war threatening to spread like wildfire across the Middle East and beyond, and the ongoing Russian war in Ukraine.

Just before Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, it had signed a “limitless friendship” deal with China which has since shielded Moscow on all international forums in the backdrop of Western sanctions.

Last week, both Russia and China overlooked the Hamas invasion of Israel and warned Tel Aviv instead of any action against the Gaza Strip.

According to Chinese media reports, Xi Jinping invited his “dear friend” Putin to China’s third BRI Forum Summit where the leaders of 130 countries will discuss one of the President’s signature projects.

China is among the first countries Putin has visited since the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant against him in March, accusing the Russian leader of illegally deporting children from Ukraine and other war crimes there.

That was why Putin skipped the BRICS Summit in South Africa and the G-20 Summit in India in September as both Johannesburg and New Delhi are signatories to the ICC rules.

But China is not among the 123 member countries of the ICC, so it is not obliged to transfer Putin to The Hague for trial.

Earlier this month, Putin visited Kyrgyzstan also. However, China is the first outside of former Soviet republic countries he has visited this year. Kyrgyzstan is also not an ICC member.

Beijing has rejected Western criticism of its partnership with Moscow even as the war in Ukraine continues, insisting that their ties do not violate international norms and that China has the right to collaborate with whichever country it chooses.

Trade between neighboring China and Russia has been soaring since Moscow began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, with Beijing importing Russian oil after other countries placed sanctions on Russian imports.

In an interview with Chinese state broadcaster CGTN ahead of his visit this week, President Putin said that a “multipolar world is taking shape, and the concepts and initiatives put forward by President Xi Jinping are highly relevant and significant.”

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived in Beijing ahead of Putin and held talks with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on Monday.

During his last Russia visit in March, Xi Jinping told Putin: “Right now there are changes – the likes of which we haven’t seen for 100 years – and we are the ones driving these changes together.”

Putin last visited China for the Beijing Winter Olympics in February 2022 when Russia and China released a sweeping 5,000-word statement reaffirming their “no-limit relationship,” days before the Russian President sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

It is the third time Putin has attended the BRI Forum, which continues until Wednesday. He attended the two previous meetings in 2017 and 2019.

After he met with Kim Jong Un in Russia last month, Putin also accepted an invitation from the North Korean leader to visit Pyongyang.

Russia has already confirmed that Foreign Minister Lavrov will visit Pyongyang after leaving Beijing.