Putin: Russia-China Ties a Stabilizing Force Ahead of Xi Talks

Russian President Vladimir Putin described the deepening relationship between Moscow and Beijing as a “stabilising” influence on global affairs ahead of talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

In remarks broadcast by Russian state media before a two-day visit to China starting Tuesday, Putin said Russia and China do not seek to align against other nations but instead aim to cooperate for peace and universal prosperity.

“It is in this spirit that Moscow and Beijing coordinate efforts to defend international law and the principles of the UN Charter in their entirety,” said Putin, whose invasion of Ukraine has been widely condemned as a violation of international law.

Putin added that Russia and China also support cooperation through multilateral platforms such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and BRICS.

The Russian leader said bilateral relations have reached an “unprecedented level,” with both sides backing each other on fundamental issues including “protection of sovereignty and national unity.”

“Russia and China look confidently toward the future, actively developing cooperation in politics, economics, defence, expanding cultural exchanges, and fostering interpersonal interaction, in essence, jointly doing everything to deepen bilateral cooperation and advance global development for the well-being of both nations,” Putin said.

Putin is scheduled to arrive in China on Tuesday evening, with talks with Xi scheduled for Wednesday.

The summit, their second face-to-face meeting in less than a year, comes as Russia and China are seen as increasingly aligned in challenging the United States’ dominant role in world affairs.

Putin’s visit, timed to mark the 25th anniversary of the Treaty of Good-Neighbourliness and Friendly Cooperation, occurs just days after Xi and US President Donald Trump concluded a two-day summit in Beijing.

The Trump-Xi summit, a follow-up to their October meeting in South Korea, featured warm rhetoric and pageantry but yielded few concrete agreements on contentious issues including trade, artificial intelligence, Taiwan and the US-Israel war on Iran.

Alexander Korolev, a senior lecturer in international relations at UNSW Sydney in Australia, said Putin and Xi would use the summit to strengthen their partnership amid strategic pressures facing both nations.

“For Russia, the visit demonstrates that it retains high‑level political access and economic partners despite Western pressure,” Korolev told Al Jazeera.

“For China, it reaffirms that the relationship with Russia remains a reliable pillar of its strategic environment.”

“The visit also highlights Beijing’s foreign policy agency and the fact that China’s foreign policy stands on its own and is not shaped by others’ preferences,” Korolev added.

Putin and Xi, who have met dozens of times in official capacity, have increased economic and diplomatic cooperation in recent years amid Moscow’s international isolation following its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Two-way trade between Russia and China more than doubled from 2020 to 2024, reaching $245bn, according to the Mercator Institute for China Studies.

Russia’s exports to China consist primarily of oil, gas and coal, while China supplies Russia with substantial quantities of machinery, vehicles, electrical equipment and textiles.