Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin on Monday praised the solidity of their bilateral partnership, hours before the Chinese president's arrival in Moscow for a summit with his Russian counterpart, isolated internationally due to the invasion of Ukraine. .
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The three-day state visit to Russia, a country with which China has strong diplomatic and economic ties, is the Chinese leader's first to its neighbor in nearly four years.
Call for peace negotiations
In an article published in the Russian newspaper
Rossiyskaya Gazeta
, Xi Jinping presented his visit as a "
journey of friendship, cooperation and peace
", in the face of Westerners who view the Sino-Russian relationship with suspicion.
“
I look forward to working with President Putin to jointly adopt a new vision
” of bilateral ties, writes Xi Jinping in particular.
On the strength of having facilitated the recent diplomatic reconciliation between Saudi Arabia and Iran, China is positioning itself as a mediator on the Russia-Ukraine war and calls in particular for peace negotiations between Moscow and Kiev.
In an article published Monday in a Chinese newspaper, Vladimir Putin hails "
China's willingness to play a constructive role in the settlement
" of the conflict and believes that "
Russian-Chinese relations have reached the highest point in their history
".
Xi Jinping's visit comes days after the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced that it had issued an arrest warrant for the Russian president, accused of war crimes for "illegal deportation" of
Ukrainian
children .
Read alsoXi Jinping condemns Western “repression” and “containment” targeting China
Customary of vitriolic remarks, the former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, currently vice-president of the National Security Council, declared that the Court of The Hague could be the target of a strike with a Russian missile.
“
One can very well imagine a high-precision strike with a Russian Oniks hypersonic missile from a Russian ship in the North Sea against the court building in The Hague,
” he wrote on Telegram, inviting the ICC judges to "
look attentively at the sky
".
Formerly a rather liberal figure within the Russian regime, Dmitry Medvedev has become one of the staunchest supporters of the offensive against Ukraine, multiplying vitriolic statements against Kiev and its Western allies.
“Dictate the international order”
The arrival of the Chinese president also offers a breath of fresh air to Vladimir Putin, diplomatically isolated and who, as a sign of defiance, went this weekend to Mariupol, a Ukrainian city devastated by the bombings.
It was the first visit by the Russian president to a conquered zone since the start of the offensive launched by the Kremlin at the end of February 2022.
Xi Jinping, who has just started a third term as president, something unprecedented in China, regularly calls Vladimir Putin his "
old friend
".
United by a “ limitless
” partnership
, celebrated last year three weeks before the start of the intervention in Ukraine, Beijing and Moscow have come together in recent years, in particular to form a common front against the West.
Read alsoPutin in Mariupol as if to challenge the ICC
China has not publicly condemned the Russian invasion and criticized the United States for its arms shipments to Ukraine and NATO for failing to take into account Russian security concerns.
However, Beijing calls for dialogue and respect for the territorial integrity of all States – including therefore Ukraine.
“
No country should dictate the international order
,” Xi Jinping wrote in the article published in the Russian newspaper.
“
China has always upheld an objective and unbiased position based on the substance of the issue and actively promoted the peace talks.
»
Position too “lukewarm”
A position deemed too lukewarm by several Western countries, for which China thus tacitly supports Russian aggression.
They also believe that Beijing's great calls for peace cannot be translated into concrete actions immediately.
The United States has already indicated that it will not support a new Chinese call for a ceasefire during Xi Jinping's visit to Russia, considering that this would amount to consolidating Russian control over the territories conquered in Ukraine. .
Many analysts also doubt Xi Jinping's ability to really facilitate a Russian-Ukrainian rapprochement, given the ties that unite Moscow and Beijing – and his relative lack of influence on the Kremlin.
The Chinese and Russian presidents will have a first " informal
" tete-a-tete
on Monday before a dinner, then discussions on Tuesday, said the Kremlin's diplomatic adviser, Yuri Ouchakov, quoted by Russian news agencies.
In particular, they will sign "
a joint declaration (...) on the deepening of relations of exhaustive partnership and strategic relationship entering a new era
" as well as a document relating to bilateral economic cooperation by 2030, a- he declared.
According to the American daily The Wall Street Journal, Xi Jinping, in the name of the neutrality displayed by his country, could also meet with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky once back in China.
