Hong Kong
CNN
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Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a joint statement “further deepening” their partnership following talks in Moscow Thursday – a show of solidarity in the face of global uncertainties unleashed by US President Donald Trump’s “America First” diplomacy.
Seated together in an ornate room in the Kremlin following roughly four hours of talks, the two leaders inked what Chinese state media said was a “joint statement on further deepening China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for a new era.” Putin and Xi typically release lengthy and wide-ranging joint statements following their regular meetings.
Putin said the two leaders had set out “ambitious goals” in this statement, highlighting their deepening economic ties and plans to ensure “significant qualitative advancement of Russian-Chinese trade and investment by 2030.”
The two countries reached record trade last year, as China emerged as a key economic lifeline for a sanctions-strapped Russia as it wages war on Ukraine. Western leaders have accused China of powering Russia’s offensive with dual-use exports, a charge Beijing denies.
The Russian market has become even more important for Chinese exporters, however, as China is now embroiled in an escalated trade war with the United States.
Xi said the two countries’ pact “injected new momentum into the development of China-Russia relations” and praised the “leap forward” in those relations over the past decade, despite “great turbulence and changes in the international situation.”
The Chinese leader also framed Moscow and Beijing as needing to work together to defend and improve the world order, saying they should “lead the correct direction of global governance and promote inclusive economic globalization” – comments that come as markets have been roiled by Trump’s threat of a global trade war.
Xi arrived Wednesday for a four-day state visit to Russia, where he’ll top a list of foreign leaders attending Putin’s heavily choreographed Victory Day military parade, which is taking place in the shadow of Russia’s ongoing war on Ukraine. This year’s events mark 80 years since the Allied victory over Nazi Germany, which ended World War II.
Putin welcomed his Chinese counterpart to the Kremlin earlier that day, where they shook hands in a cavernous hall before posing for photos flanked by oversized Chinese and Russian flags. During opening remarks, each referred to the other as a “friend,” while Xi described their relationship as “composed and confident, stable and resilient.”
The two leaders have met more than 40 times over the past decade and steadily strengthened their partnership in recent years in the face of shared tensions with the West. Their diplomacy this week comes at a pivotal moment in each country’s relations with the United States.
Chinese officials are expected to meet with US counterparts in the coming days to discuss their spiraling trade tensions, sparked by Trump’s heavy tariffs on the world’s second-largest economy. Moscow, meanwhile, has found a more sympathetic America under Trump than it did during Joe Biden’s presidency, but is now warily eying recently warming ties between Washington and Kyiv.
Both Beijing and Moscow have appeared keen to use the gathering to showcase themselves as stable partners and reliable powers, part of a broader bid to reshape an international order they see unfairly dominated by the West.
“Currently, in the face of an international countercurrent of unilateralism and the hegemonic practices of the powerful, China together with Russia will take on our special responsibilities as major world powers and permanent members of the UN Security Council,” Xi said during his opening remarks earlier Thursday, using language Beijing typically employs in veiled references to the US.
The meeting takes place hours after a three-day ceasefire in Ukraine — unilaterally declared by Putin last month — came into effect, coinciding with the parade. Russian state news agency Tass said the ceasefire began at midnight local time on Wednesday (5 p.m. ET Wednesday).
However, Ukraine’s air force claimed that, overnight, Russia launched guided bombs over the city of Sumy in northeastern Ukraine. CNN could not independently verify the claim.
Earlier this month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned dignitaries traveling to the event that Kyiv “cannot be responsible for what happens on the territory of the Russian Federation,” amid the ongoing conflict, a statement the Kremlin said amounted to a threat.
Ukraine has launched multiple drone attacks on Moscow over the course of the war, including in recent days, prompting temporary closures of airports in the capital for several hours. Ukraine says its attacks are in response to Russia’s continued assault on Ukrainian territory, including residential areas and energy infrastructure.
More than two dozen leaders are expected to gather in the Russian capital for the Victory Day celebrations, while troops from 13 countries will march in the parade, according to the Kremlin. Leaders expected to attend include Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Egypt’s Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Belarussian leader Aleksandr Lukashenko.
The gathering, a key chance for Putin to project himself as a global power player, takes place amid an increasingly contentious global backdrop, including tensions between India and Pakistan which threaten to spiral into a full-blown conflict.
Russia’s May 9 Victory Day is one of the country’s largest celebrations. It marks Nazi Germany’s 1945 surrender to the Soviet Union, a day which has become increasingly important under Putin, who has falsely claimed his war in Ukraine is a “denazification.” In recent years the parade has seen a diminished supply of military hardware, as Russian tanks are instead mobilized on that war’s front lines.
Europe celebrates its VE Day, marking Germany’s surrender on all fronts, on Thursday.
