Next week, Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit China to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping and improve ties between the two countries. Experts think that Putin’s growing reliance on Beijing is shown by this visit.
On October 17 and 18, people from 130 countries, including President Putin, will be in Beijing for the New Silk Roads Forum. This event marks the tenth anniversary of the start of the huge building project called “Belt and Road.” By building ports, railroads, airports, and industrial zones, this project aims to improve trade between Asia, Europe, Africa, and other places.
The forum is very important, but everyone’s attention will be on Vladimir Putin. Since his role in the Ukraine conflict and following isolation from the rest of the world, Putin has become more strategically dependent on China. China, in particular, failed to condemn what Russia did in Ukraine. It was a high year for trade between the two countries in 2022, with about $190 million worth of goods going back and forth. Both Beijing and Moscow have promised to raise this amount to $200 million by 2023.
During his March visit to Russia, Chinese President Xi Jinping told Putin how much he valued the “unlimited chances and prospects” that Russian-Chinese cooperation against the Western bloc offered. In May, Xi Jinping told Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin that he would “steadfastly back” their “core interests” and called for stronger economic ties with Moscow.
Experts think that Putin’s trip to Beijing is an attempt to keep those promises and get more backing for what he is doing in Ukraine. An expert on relations between China and Russia at Jilin University in China, Björn Alexander Dubin, says that this could include giving “lethal military help.” China has not given these kinds of weapons to Moscow until now because it wants to stay out of the war and help Russia with important diplomatic and financial matters.
