Russian President Vladimir on Wednesday landed in China's national capital, Beijing, to meet his "dear friend" Xi Jinping whom he greeted grandly with a 21-gun salute. The significance of Putin's visit could be understood by the fact that the Kremlin leader chose Beijing as his first foreign destination after he took oath as Russian President earlier last week. By picking China for his first foreign trip since being sworn in this month for another six-year term, experts opine that Putin is sending a message to the world about his priorities and the strength of his personal ties with Xi.
Historic agreement signed between China and Russia
During his two-day state visit, both leaders pledged a "new era" of partnership between the two most powerful rivals of the United States which they cast as an aggressive Cold War hegemon that was sowing chaos across the world. Xi, 70, and Putin, 71, signed a joint statement on Thursday about the "new era" that proclaimed opposition to the United States on a host of security issues and a shared view on everything from Taiwan and Ukraine to North Korea and cooperation on new peaceful nuclear technologies and finance.
"The China-Russia relationship today is hard-earned, and the two sides need to cherish and nurture it," Xi told Putin. "China is willing to ... jointly achieve the development and rejuvenation of our respective countries, and work together to uphold fairness and justice in the world."
Putin and Xi share a broad worldview which sees the West as decadent and in decline just as China challenges US supremacy in everything from quantum computing and synthetic biology to espionage and hard military power.
What does Putin, Xi meeting mean for the US?
The closeness between China and Russia may make it uncomfortable for India and the United States amid the fact New Delhi remained the most tested friend of Moscow and Beijing and Moscow remains one of the top economic contenders of Washington. When it comes to New Delhi, it has shown a rigid spine to back Russia after Putin launched a full-fledged war against Ukraine. On the other hand, US President Biden Joe Biden showered tons of sanctions on Moscow in an attempt to penalise the Kremlin.
The joint statement which was released after multiple bilateral meetings with Xi and Putin, described it as deepening the strategic relationship and spoke specifically of how cooperation in the defence sectors between the two nations improved regional and global security and of plans to step up military ties.
It singled out the United States for particular criticism. "The United States still thinks in terms of the Cold War and is guided by the logic of bloc confrontation, putting the security of 'narrow groups' above regional security and stability, which creates a security threat for all countries in the region," the joint statement said. "The US must abandon this behaviour."
It also condemned initiatives to seize assets and property of foreign states, a clear reference to Western moves to redirect the profits from frozen Russian assets or the assets themselves to help Ukraine. This means the closeness between Moscow and Beijing could further spiral in the coming time.
Putin needs to play a balancing act between India and China
For India, it is obvious that the top diplomats must be keeping a close eye on the bilateral engagements between Xi and Putin. Although there is no direct threat to New Delhi with the latest development, but it would be a dilemmatic situation for Putin when it comes to supporting India on the border issues with China.
Notably, Russia has been India's largest arms supplier over the past ten years, even though Moscow's share of India's arms imports fell from 64 to 45 per cent. During the past five years, the Kremlin supplied India with about USD 13 billion of weapons and military equipment. It means Russia remained the top arms supplier even though the border tension between the two populous countries was at its zenith. In fact, Moscow ramped up the supply of its arms to New Delhi when Chinese forces attacked Indian soldiers in Galwan Valley in 2020. Therefore, it would be an act of balance for Russia to maintain good relations with both India and China.
