(Updated with US State Department, new statements; photo/TV available)
par Guy Faulconbridge et Simon Lewis
MOSCOW/WASHINGTON, February 22 (Reuters) –
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping would visit Russia, saying relations between their two countries had reached “new frontiers”, a rapprochement that worries the United States.
This announcement comes as Washington has expressed concern that Beijing will decide to supply arms to Moscow for its offensive in Ukraine, a move that would result in an escalation into a wider conflict with, on the one hand, Russia and China, and the other, Ukraine and NATO.
Vladimir Putin received the head of Chinese diplomacy, Wang Yi, in the Kremlin for a meeting during which the Russian president affirmed that trade relations between Russia and China were doing better than expected and that they could reach 200 billion this year, after 185 billion in 2022.
“We are expecting a visit from the President of the People’s Republic of China to Russia, we have agreed on that,” Vladimir Putin told Wang Yi. “Everything is progressing, developing. We are reaching new frontiers,” he added.
In Washington, the spokesman for the American State Department said that he saw in the visit of the head of Chinese diplomacy to Moscow further proof of China’s alignment with Russia, two days before the anniversary of the war in Ukraine.
“We are concerned because these two countries share a vision. A vision (…) of an era in which big countries can intimidate small ones, borders can be redrawn by force (…)”, has said Ned Price during a press briefing.
Wang Yi, who also spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, said China adheres to an “objective and impartial position” and wants to play a “constructive role in the political resolution of the crisis” in Ukraine. according to remarks reported by the official Russian news agency Tass.
MOSCOW AND BEIJING WILL NOT “SUCCOME TO PRESSURE”
He stressed to Vladimir Putin that relations between China and Russia had resisted in an unstable international context and that crises offered opportunities.
Sino-Russian relations, he added through an interpreter, are not directed against a third party but they “will not succumb to pressure from third parties either” – a rather explicit reference to UNITED STATES.
“We jointly support multipolarity and the democratization of international relations,” Wang Yi also told Vladimir Putin.
Wang Yi also met with Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, with whom he discussed the situation in Ukraine, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement, without providing further details.
They agreed that peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region should be preserved and opposed the development of a “Cold War mentality”, the ministry said.
The war in Ukraine began just weeks after Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping announced a “limitless” partnership between their two countries, causing concern in the West.
Xi Jinping continues to resist Western pressure to isolate Moscow since Russia launched what it calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine.
Sino-Russian trade has exploded since the invasion of Ukraine, and Russia has turned to Asian powers, including China, to sell larger volumes of oil.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Wang Yi on Saturday of the consequences of Beijing’s support for Moscow.
Beijing has denied any military support to Russia.
Asked about the subject of aid from China, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Chinese representatives had already spoken.
“They have already answered this question, they have also firmly denied it. There is nothing to add here,” said Dmitry Peskov.
(Reportage Reuters; French version Camille Raynaud, Kate Entringer and Blandine Hénault, edited by Matthieu Protard and Jean Terzian)
