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Orange Wang

Zhuang Pinghui

Chinese President Xi Jinping held a meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin via a video link on Tuesday, state broadcaster CCTV reported.
The talks came hours after US President Donald Trump returned to the White House and said he would meet Putin “very soon”.
Xi told Putin he was ready to work with his Russian counterpart to elevate bilateral ties between the two countries to new heights in 2025.
“[We will] respond to uncertainties in the external environment with the stability and resilience of China-Russia relations, jointly promote the development and revitalisation of the two countries and safeguard international fairness and justice,” Xi said, according to CCTV.
The Chinese leader also reflected on the history of World War II. He said Beijing would continue to work with Moscow to uphold a multipolar international system and safeguard the hard-won achievements of the war, “secured through the blood and lives of millions”, and defend the rights of the two countries as founding and permanent members of the UN Security Council.
Both leaders hailed achievements in bilateral energy ties, especially the China-Russia East-Route Natural Gas Pipeline.
Xi said China-Russia ties – underpinned by “everlasting” good neighbourliness – were gaining renewed vitality. He said their cooperation through international platforms like the UN, Shanghai Cooperation Organization and Brics had “injected more positive energy into reforming and improving the global governance system”.
Xi and Putin also had an “in-depth” exchange on “international and regional issues of common concern” and agreed to continue to maintain strategic communication this year, according to the CCTV report.
Putin said the video call with Xi extended a “good tradition of meeting at the start of the year” to “review the results of our work over the past period and outline new plans for the development” of the Russia-China partnership and strategic cooperation, according to a transcript released by the Kremlin.
Putin described 2024 as a “very fruitful” year for the two neighbours and said Moscow and Beijing “are coordinating our steps in other multilateral forums”.
“We jointly advocate the building of a fairer multipolar world order and work to ensure indivisible security in the Eurasian space and in the world as a whole,” he told Xi, according to the transcript.
“It is safe to say that the foreign policy relationship and joint work between Russia and China objectively plays an important stabilising role in international affairs.”
During the call, Putin also said trade between the two countries had withstood “the negative impact from outside” last year.
The talks come as trade between China and Russia defied mounting Western sanctions to reach a new high in 2024 – up 1.9 per cent from the previous year to US$244.8 billion.
Noting that Russia was preparing to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, Putin told Xi that “the ideology of fascism, Nazism and militarism must not be allowed to raise its head again”.
“It is important to cherish and defend the historical truth together with other like-minded people,” he added.


It follows a phone call between Xi and Trump on Friday, when the two leaders exchanged views on the war in Ukraine, according to the Chinese readout.
China has close economic, diplomatic and military ties with Russia and is considered to have the sway over Moscow to help end the war, which enters its fourth year next month.
Trump has repeatedly said he could end the war “within one day” after taking office.
On Monday as he signed executive orders in the Oval Office on the first day of his second presidency, Trump said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wanted to make a deal, and he thought Putin should, too.
“I don’t know if Putin does … he might not,” Trump told reporters. “I think he should make a deal. I think he’s destroying Russia by not making a deal.”
Putin sent congratulations to Trump before his inauguration on Monday and said Moscow was willing to talk with the Trump administration. Trump did not mention the Ukraine war during his inauguration speech.
Tuesday’s video call came three weeks after Xi and Putin exchanged New Year’s greetings. It also comes amid growing discussion about the potential for Trump’s White House to expedite the resolution of the war in Ukraine to focus efforts on countering China.
There has also been speculation over whether Moscow and Washington could edge closer during the second Trump administration to target Beijing together.
But Wang Jisi, founding president of the Institute of International and Strategic Studies at Peking University, said during a forum in Beijing on January 12 that he saw “absolutely no possibility” that Trump would significantly improve relations with Russia and bring Russia over to his side to fight China.
“I don’t believe such a scenario is feasible. What the US might do instead is pursue what is called a ‘double strike’ or even ‘double containment’ – simultaneously suppressing China and Russia,” he said. “However, this approach will likely lead to China and Russia further strengthening their relationship, which the US won’t like but cannot change.”


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Diplomacy

In video call, Chinese leader says relations – underpinned by ‘everlasting’ good neighbourliness – are gaining renewed vitality, according to CCTV


In video call, Chinese leader says relations – underpinned by ‘everlasting’ good neighbourliness – are gaining renewed vitality, according to CCTV.


Peking University

Xi tells Putin he wants to take ties to new heights, soon after Trump’s return to White House

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}In video call, Chinese leader says relations – underpinned by ‘everlasting’ good neighbourliness – are gaining renewed vitality, according to CCTV

In video call, Chinese leader says relations – underpinned by ‘everlasting’ good neighbourliness – are gaining renewed vitality, according to CCTV