Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping signed a joint statement on cooperation in Beijing on Wednesday, according to state media.
The statement, which aims at “further enhancing” strategic coordination between the two nations and deepening “good-neighborliness and friendly cooperation,” was signed alongside a number of other agreements covering areas such as technology and trade.
The leaders, who also attended the opening ceremony of a new joint education initiative, are meeting just days after US President Donald Trump wrapped up his own highly-publicised but largely underwhelming trip to Beijing, departing China on Friday without appearing to have made any major progress on trade, Ukraine, or his war with Iran.
Welcoming Putin in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People to mark the 25th anniversary of the China-Russia Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation, Xi touted Moscow and Beijing’s “unyielding” ties and called for further cooperation between the capitals.
“As permanent members of the UN Security Council and important major countries in the world, China and Russia should take a strategic and long-term perspective, drive the development and revitalization of our respective countries through comprehensive strategic coordination of even higher quality, and work to make the global governance system more just and reasonable,” Xi said, per Chinese state media.
Putin added that relations with Beijing had reached an “unprecedentedly high level.”
The Russian president had touched down in China on Tuesday night, where he was greeted by Foreign Minister Wang Yi and a guard of honour, as well as youths in light blue shirts waving Chinese and Russian flags and chanting, “Welcome, welcome, warmly welcome!”
The Kremlin previously said that Putin and Xi plan to use the visit to discuss economic cooperation and “key international and regional issues.”
China is a key trading partner for Russia, especially after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 isolated the Kremlin from the international arena and cut a considerable amount of its ties with Western Hemisphere countries.
Beijing has long maintained what it calls a neutral stance in the conflict despite having grown its trade ties with the Kremlin amid economic and financial sanctions by the US and Europe.
China has become Russia’s top trading partner following the start of the war in Ukraine, and is the top customer for Russian oil and gas supplies. Moscow expects the war in Iran to increase the demand. China also has ignored demands from the West to stop providing high-tech components for Russia’s weapons industries.
Yuri Ushakov, the Russian presidential aide, said Moscow’s oil exports to China grew by 35% in the first quarter of 2026 and that Russia is one of the biggest exporters of natural gas to China, referring to his country’s biggest ally as a “responsible consumer”.
There is “no connection” between the visits by Trump and Putin, said Ushakov on Monday, noting the trip by the Russian leader was agreed in advance, several days after Putin and Xi spoke via video conference on 4 February.
“The Trump visit was about stabilising the world’s most important bilateral relationship; the Putin visit is about reassuring a long-standing strategic partner,” said Wang Zichen, deputy secretary-general for the Beijing-based think tank Center for China & Globalisation.
“For China, these two tracks are not mutually exclusive,” he added.
Putin and Xi’s close ‘friendship’
Putin last visited China in September 2025 to attend the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in Tianjin, watch a military parade honouring the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, and to hold talks with Xi.
At the time, Xi called his counterpart an “old friend ” while Putin addressed Xi as “dear friend.” In China, “old friend” is a very rare diplomatic term used by government officials and in official correspondence and party to describe favoured foreigners.
In April, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov visited Beijing and met Xi, who described the bilateral relationship as “precious” in the current international context. Xi said China and Russia needed to strengthen and defend their shared interests.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said over the weekend that Putin’s trip also would allow Russia to receive direct updates and exchange views with China on its talks with the US.
During Trump’s visit, Xi described the bilateral relationship between Washington and Beijing as the world’s most important and said they should see each other as partners rather than rivals.
By the end of the two-day summit, the countries said they would work on a new framework to manage “a constructive China-US relationship of strategic stability.”
The Russian president is set to meet with Xi Jinping on Wednesday where many items are on the agenda, including international conflicts, energy disruptions caused by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the wars both in Ukraine and Iran.
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