Other countries can’t affect our relationship, top China diplomat Wang Yi tells Putin in Russia

MOSCOW - China’s top diplomat Wang Yi told Russian President Vladimir Putin during talks at the Kremlin on Wednesday that relations between Beijing and Moscow could not be influenced by other countries, in remarks broadcast on Russian state TV. 

Mr Putin said he was looking forward to a visit to Moscow by Chinese President Xi Jinping and to deepening the partnership between the two countries, days after the United States warned Beijing against providing material support to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Chinese weapons supplies to Russia would risk a potential escalation of the Ukraine war into a confrontation between Russia and China on the one side, and Ukraine and the US-led Nato military alliance on the other.

Mr Putin welcomed Mr Wang to the Kremlin, telling him that bilateral trade was better than expected and could soon reach US$200 billion (S$268 billion) a year, up from US$185 billion in 2022.

“We await a visit of the President of the People’s Republic of China to Russia, we have agreed on this,” he told Mr Wang.

“Everything is progressing, developing. We are reaching new frontiers.”

Mr Wang told Mr Putin that relations between the two countries had withstood pressure from a volatile international situation, and that crises offered certain opportunities.

The relationship between China and Russia, Mr Wang said through an interpreter, was not directed against any third party, but equally would “not succumb to pressure from third parties” – a clear jab at the US.

“Together we support multi-polarity and democratisation in international relations,” he said. “This fully meets the course of time and history; it also meets the interests of the majority of countries.”

Mr Wang earlier met Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, saying that he looked forward to clinching new agreements during his visit to Moscow, without providing any details.

“No matter how the international situation changes, China has been and remains committed, together with Russia, to make efforts to preserve the positive trend in the development of relations between major powers,” he said.

Mr Wang said he would work to “strengthen and deepen” relations between Moscow and Beijing. He provided no specific details on what agreements might be reached during his visit.

When Mr Putin and Chinese President Xi met face to face just before Russia launched its “special military operation” in Ukraine on Feb 24, 2022, the two leaders sealed a

strategic “no limits” partnership

between China and Russia that triggered anxiety in the West.

China is Russia’s largest buyer of oil, one of the key sources of revenue for Moscow’s state coffers.

Mr Wang’s visit to Moscow, roughly a year after

Mr Putin ordered an invasion of Ukraine,

shows that China has little intention of abandoning its close diplomatic partner despite Beijing’s efforts to limit the damage caused by the war.

‘Honest dialogue’

For Mr Putin, China’s big-power support amid the biggest confrontation with the West since the height of the Cold War allows him to cast Russia’s isolation in the West as a tilt towards Asia.

For Mr Xi, Russia is now more dependent on China than ever. Once the leader in the global communist hierarchy, Russia after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union is now a junior partner to a resurgent China which already leads in many 21st-century technologies.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken last Saturday warned Mr Wang of consequences should China provide material support to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

He said in an interview after the two men met that Washington was concerned by Beijing considering supplying weapons to Moscow.

Beijing has denied providing military support to Moscow.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Maria Zakharova said Mr Wang’s trip had shown Russia and China were of one mind on many global issues.

“We welcome China’s readiness to play a positive role in resolving the Ukrainian crisis,” she told a briefing.

Asked about the issue of Chinese military assistance, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “I don’t think I can give a more colourful answer on this topic than the Chinese representatives have already done.

“They have already answered this question, they have, in fact, strongly denied it. There is nothing to add here.”

“The leaders of Russia and China maintain an honest dialogue,” he added. “In general, we value and maintain our relations of advanced strategic partnership, which imply regular communication between the heads of state.”

After Mr Blinken’s claims, for which he did not supply evidence, China said the US was in no position to make demands.

Mr Xi has stood by Mr Putin during the conflict in Ukraine, resisting Western pressure to isolate Moscow. Chinese-Russian trade has soared since the invasion of Ukraine, and Russia has sold Asian powers, including China, greater volumes of oil. REUTERS