Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Four days after US President Donald Trump ended his rather ‘unproductive’ visit to China, Russian leader Vladimir Putin will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing this week, the media reported on Monday.
Ahead of the Russian President’s two-day visit from Tuesday, Xi and Putin exchanged “congratulatory letters” on Sunday, days after Trump’s ‘high stakes’ summit with the Chinese President.
Xi said bilateral cooperation between Moscow and Beijing had “continuously deepened and solidified”, with this year marking the 30th anniversary of the two countries’ strategic partnership, China’s state-controlled media said.
Putin’s visit to Beijing is scheduled on Tuesday and Wednesday.
An article published in state media tabloid Global Times on Monday said the visits of the US and Russian presidents showed Beijing was “fast emerging as the focal point of global diplomacy.”
“The tightly sequenced visits have sparked widespread attention, with analysts noting that it is extremely rare in the post-cold war era for a country to host the leaders of the US and Russia back-to-back within a week,” it said.
China’s deepened relationship with Russia has been a cause of concern in the West, particularly since Moscow launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. China’s economic and diplomatic support for Russia since then has helped to sustain the conflict; besides, Beijing is also testing the Kyiv waters to prepare for its own potential Taipei invasion.
The two men have met on more than 40 occasions, far outstripping Xi’s encounters with western leaders, The Guardian said.
China and Russia’s bilateral trade has soared to record levels since 2022, with Beijing purchasing more than one-quarter of Moscow’s exports. China’s large purchases of Russian crude oil have supplied Moscow with more than USD 367 billion of revenue for the ongoing war in Ukraine.
These purchases have supported China’s energy security, which has become especially important since the crisis in West Asia stopped the shipping of crude through the Strait of Hormuz since March 2026.
Neither the war in Ukraine, nor the Sino-Russian relationship, appeared to feature heavily in Trump’s talks with Xi last week. The Chinese statement about the main bilateral meeting made a brief reference to “the Ukraine crisis” while the US statement did not mention it at all.
Instead, the US-China talks appeared to focus on trade, Taiwan, and the war in West Asia, with Trump saying China agreed with him on the importance of reopening the strait of Hormuz.
Xi also pressed Trump on Taiwan, warning him of the potential for conflict if the issue was not handled properly. Trump left Beijing saying that he had not decided whether to approve a multi-billion-dollar deal of US weapons to Taiwan. Halting the sale would be a major win for Beijing, which seeks to take control of the self-governing island, something the majority of Taiwanese oppose.
Russia has been pushing China to move forward with the “Power of Siberia 2” gas pipeline that would add 50 billion cubic metres of capacity to the existing network between the two countries.