Chinese president Xi Jinping hailed his relationship with Russian leader Vladimir Putin which he said has stood the test of time as he welcomed his “old friend” in Beijing ahead of the country’s largest military parade.
China is hosting Mr Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un – the aggressors of the Ukraine war – in Beijing for the parade on Wednesday in a show of solidarity from the “Global South” to respond to the rising challenges from the Donald Trump administration.
The two leaders have been rendered pariahs on the international stage over their role in the war in Ukraine.
Mr Xi, flanked by Mr Putin and Mr Kim, will oversee the parade to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War.
While Mr Putin arrived in China on Sunday to attend the regional Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit and is expected to attend the parade, the further isolated North Korean leader reached Beijing on Tuesday after leaving from his home country on Tuesday.
The decades-old allies, China and Russia, have fostered their relationship in recent years, especially after Moscow launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
While China has said it is neutral in the Ukraine war and supports peace prospects, it has provided an economic lifeline to Russia by purchasing its oil and continuing trade despite western sanctions.
“Chinese-Russian relations have stood the test of international circumstances and serve as a model of interstate relations, eternal good-neighbourliness, friendship, comprehensive strategic interaction, mutually beneficial cooperation and win-win,” Mr Xi told the Russian president as the two sat down for their formal meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
Beijing is ready to work with Moscow to push for a “more just and reasonable” global order, he said.
“China is willing to maintain close high-level interactions with Russia,” Mr Xi said. He also vowed to coordinate positions with Russia “in a timely manner” on issues relating to each other’s concerns and core interests.
In response, Mr Putin called Mr Xi a “dear friend” and said that Moscow’s relationship with Beijing are “at an unprecedentedly high level”.
Their regular contact “reflects the strategic nature of Russian-Chinese ties”, Mr Putin said. “We were always together then, we remain together now,” Mr Putin said.
The two leaders have also agreed for another meeting over tea with some of their top aides.
The military parade, which is expected to showcase China’s military might and diplomatic pomp, is Mr Xi’s way of countering America and other wealthy nations, experts have said.
“China is trying to say that it was a key member leading the establishment of the postwar global order,” said Shin Kawashima, a China expert at the University of Tokyo, adding, “and that it has now reached a stage where it is catching up with and overtaking the United States”.
This is also the first time North Korea’s reclusive leader Mr Kim will also be at a world stage event alongside several powerful leaders.
Mr Kim has never attended a world event with so many other foreign leaders.
By accepting the invitation to Wednesday’s summit, Mr Kim has marked one of his most momentous diplomatic moves since holding historic summits with President Trump during his first term, analysts and South Korean officials said.
Like Russia, North Korea is also heavily sanctioned but over its nuclear programme by the UN member states. Its further participation in Mr Putin’s war efforts in Ukraine has raised its international isolation.
“It’s elevating North Korea’s position to kind of the big boys, and then Kim can project that image back home like he did with his summit with Donald Trump, he can really show off his world statesman side,” John Delury, a senior fellow at The Asia Society told Reuters, calling Mr Kim “a global brand”.
