Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Beijing late Tuesday night to strengthen ties with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and try to revive a long-stalled energy project.
China’s Foreign Ministry noted that this is already the Russian leader’s 25th visit to the country.
Putin and Xi, who share close personal ties and a common vision of a multipolar world order capable of challenging U.S. global dominance, are set to hold talks on Wednesday — followed by a private tea meeting.
Formally, the visit marks the 25th anniversary of the Treaty of Good-Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation between Russia and China. In timing, however, it comes almost immediately after Xi’s summit with Donald Trump in Beijing last week.
“The tea meeting is one of the most important events of the visit,” Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters on Monday. According to him, the Russian side, “like our Chinese friends, is interested in making this tea meeting last as long as possible.”
Among the issues on the agenda is the Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline project, the Kremlin said. According to Ushakov, the two sides plan to sign around 40 agreements.
Moscow hopes that turbulence in global energy markets, triggered by the conflict in the Middle East and the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, will make Beijing more flexible in negotiations over gas pricing for the project.
Chinese state media highlighted potential areas of cooperation ranging from energy, agriculture, science, and technology to space and artificial intelligence. The Russian delegation includes senior officials and executives from the country’s largest state corporations — from Gazprom to Rosatom and Roscosmos.
People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s flagship newspaper, described bilateral ties in an editorial on Monday as the “best” in history, adding that international turbulence requires both sides to further “strengthen strategic coordination and comprehensive cooperation.”
Putin himself said in a video address ahead of the trip that relations between Russia and China had reached a “truly unprecedented level,” and described Xi as “my longtime good friend.”