Russia looks to cosy up with China after Trump’s meeting with Xi

Russian officials appeared eager on Monday to reaffirm Moscow’s alliance with China following US President Donald Trump’s high-profile meeting with Xi Jinping.

Immediately after Trump’s talks with Xi last week, which the US president described as “surprising”, Russia sent a large delegation to China for deal-making and talks.

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin arrived in Hangzhou on Monday for two days of talks with his Chinese counterpart Li Qiang, and the officials signed a series of agreements. Russian state media reportedDeepening cooperation in the fields of trade, investment, energy, transportation, agriculture and space.

In his comments, Mishustin described his Chinese counterpart as his “dear friend”. According to the news of Russian state news agency Ria NovostiHe stated that relations between Russia and China “are at the highest level in their centuries-old history and continue to develop dynamically in all areas, despite various obstacles and illegal sanctions of the West.”

Li Qiang said that Beijing was ready to strengthen cooperation with Russia despite the obstacles, but did not specify what he meant.

“Despite the new external risks and challenges in this process, China and Russia always support each other, establish strategic contacts and interactions, and try to jointly overcome challenges,” TASS reported. he said. He added that the partnership “shows that China and Russia are good neighbors and reliable partners who can always rely on each other.”

China is Russia’s most important and powerful international ally; Beijing has refused to condemn Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine and the ongoing war, echoing Russia’s rhetoric by calling the war a “crisis”.

Putin and Xi signed an “unlimited” partnership just before his invasion of Ukraine, and Russia has sought to leverage the alliance in terms of both geopolitical support and trade partnerships to mitigate the impact of Western sanctions restricting its energy export market.

Ahead of this week’s trip, the Kremlin said it attached “very great” importance to the talks, and that this was certainly reflected in the delegation sent to Asia, where Mishustin was accompanied by his aides and a number of senior officials, including the ministers of finance, agriculture, transport, economic development and trade.

The delegation was accompanied by the general director of Roscosmos and the president of Rosatom, as well as space and nuclear energy officials.

Russian officials’ two-day visit to China comes just days after Trump’s high-profile meeting with Chinese President Xi last week, in which he said the leaders “agreed on many issues.” Meanwhile, Xi said Beijing and Washington should be “partners and friends”.

In what is commonly seen Following a “trade truce” following months of rising tensions over tariffs and counter-tariffs, Trump said he had reached a 1-year deal with China on rare earth supplies and also halved fentanyl-related tariffs on Beijing and cut overall duties on Chinese goods to 47%.