Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed his country’s close ties with China as “unprecedented” in a meeting with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing on Friday.

In televised opening remarks at the meeting with Xi, ahead of the opening of the Winter Olympic Games, Putin said China and Russia had supported each other in a wide range of areas, from foreign affairs to economic development.

He said energy cooperation between the two nations would be boosted with the supply of natural gas from Russia to China.

“[Our bilateral relationship] is indeed unprecedented in the spirit of friendship and strategic partnership, and the relationship between the two countries is an example of a good relationship that facilitates mutual development and also helps to support each other in development,” Putin said.

The trip is Putin’s first to China since 2019, and Xi’s first face-to-face meeting with a foreign state leader since 2020, when he met the leaders of Cambodia, Mongolia and Pakistan in Beijing.

Their summit in Beijing is a show of solidarity on the sidelines of the Winter Olympics. Both sides are using the meeting to indicate they are coordinating to counter the United States.

The Russian leader is using the occasion to court his increasingly powerful neighbour to help offset the US’ network of alliances, describing the two countries in an interview with Chinese state media as playing an “important stabilising role”.

The two nations have set a goal of reaching US$200 billion in trade by 2024. Russia’s data suggests China is already Russia’s largest trading partner and trade jumped by one-third to a record US$140 billion last year.

South China Morning Post