Nuclear energy, Taiwan and Trump’s ‘Golden Dome’: Key points from the Xi-Putin talks

BEIJING/MOSCOW – China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin on May 20 hailed progress in their “comprehensive partnership” and criticised US President Donald Trump’s Golden Dome project but did not announce a breakthrough on a major natural gas pipeline.

Just days after he greeted Mr Trump in Beijing, Mr Xi welcomed Mr Putin in the same way, with an honour guard and a gun salute at the Great Hall of the People, as children waved Chinese and Russian flags. The pair are expected to take part in a tea ceremony.

How have China-Russia relations evolved?

After Mao Zedong founded the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the country became an ally and junior partner of the Soviet Union, then the unchallenged leader in the global Communist hierarchy.

Despite a shared antagonism with the West, especially the US, relations between Moscow and Beijing deteriorated, leading to the Sino-Soviet split of 1961. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia and China rekindled their friendship.

Since then, the balance of power has shifted in Beijing’s favour as China has emerged as a global economic powerhouse and technological leader.

Since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Moscow has become more dependent on China economically.

China is by far Russia’s biggest trading partner, with around US$240 billion (S$306.98 billion) in trade, according to Russian figures and China is the biggest purchaser of Russian crude. Russia is China’s fifth largest trading partner after the US, Japan, South Korea and Vietnam, according to the Kremlin.

Mr Trump has said previous US administrations made a major mistake by allowing Russia and China to align.

How do the outcomes of the Trump and Putin visits compare?

Receiving both Mr Trump and Mr Putin within a week underscores the power of both Mr Xi and the rising China that he has ruled since 2012.

The Kremlin said it was important to look at the content of the two visits rather than the ceremonial aspects, adding that not everything was visible on the surface.

Mr Trump left China on May 15 with no major breakthroughs on trade or tangible help from Beijing to end the Iran war, despite two days spent heaping praise on his host, Mr Xi Jinping.

After the Putin-Xi talks, a 9,935-word joint statement, which touched on nuclear security, Taiwan, and even Amur tigers, giant pandas and golden snub-nosed monkeys, was signed alongside a shorter joint declaration.

Another 20 documents ranging from sanitary norms and state news to nuclear energy were inked. As of writing, no major deals between Russia and China had been clinched.

Russia hopes to power its flagship GigaChat AI model with Chinese-made chips, Sberbank CEO German Gref said as Western sanctions continue to block Russia's access to advanced hardware abroad.

Any progress on the planned new Russia-China pipeline?

The Kremlin said that a general understanding with China on their joint Power of Siberia 2 natural gas pipeline had been reached but key details and a timetable for the vast project still needed to be agreed.

Russia and China have been in talks for years over the pipeline, which would bring gas to China via Mongolia from Russia’s natural gas heartland in northern Siberia, as pricing and other issues remain elusive.

Did Putin and Xi criticise Trump?

Russia and China said in a joint declaration that attempts by some countries to dominate global affairs in the spirit of the colonial era had failed but that the world was in danger of a return to the “law of the jungle”.

They also said that Mr Trump's Golden Dome missile defence shield plans threatened strategic stability and that Washington had been irresponsible not to work on a replacement for a landmark nuclear treaty. REUTERS