Russian President Vladimir Putin met with China’s defense minister, underscoring Beijing’s strong engagement with Moscow, with which it has largely aligned itself in its foreign policy in an effort to curtail the influence of the United States and other Western democracies.
Putin and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu met General Li Changfu on Sunday, less than a month after Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s three-day state visit to Moscow.
China refused to criticize Russia’s military actions in Ukraine and holds the United States and NATO responsible for Moscow’s provocation. But China’s foreign minister said last week that China will not help Russia with weapons, as the United States and other Western allies fear.
Officially, China remains neutral in the Ukrainian conflict. However, Xi’s trip underscored how China has increasingly become the first partner in the relationship, as it provides Russia with political cover and an economic lifeline during the conflict in Ukraine.
In his opening speech to the meeting, Putin hailed the all-round development of Russia-China relations.
“We are also actively working through the military departments, regularly exchanging information useful to us, cooperating in the field of military-technical cooperation, conducting joint exercises, moreover, in various theaters: in the Far East, in Europe and at sea, in the Kremlin, he said. .
Li said the relationship between the two countries “transcends the military and political unions of the Cold War era. It is based on the principles of non-alignment and is very stable.”
“We have very strong relations. They are superior to the military and political alliances of the Cold War era… They are very stable,” he said in translated remarks broadcast on Russian television.
He added that Russian-Chinese relations have “already entered a new era.”
