The two leaders’ meeting comes the day before a military parade marking Japan’s surrender in World War II.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has welcomed his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin as an “old friend” while the latter said their countries’ ties were at an “unprecedented level”, as the two began a series of meetings in Beijing seen as sending a message of defiance and strength to Western powers.
The two allies have sharp differences with the United States amid disputes over the Ukraine war and President Donald Trump’s ramping up of tariffs.
Putin addressed Xi as a “dear friend” on Tuesday and lauded Moscow’s deepening ties with Beijing. Following their formal talks in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, they planned to have another meeting over tea with some of their top aides.
The talks come a day after both attended a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in the nearby Chinese city of Tianjin. Moscow and Beijing have promoted the SCO as a counterweight to Western-led alliances, with Putin arguing the world needs a “system that would replace outdated Eurocentric and Euro-Atlantic models”.
