Hot on the heels of Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin has now travelled to visit Xi Jinping in China. The leaders will spend two days discussing global politics and strengthening economic ties between their countries. The media discusses both what Putin has called the “unprecedentedly high level” of relations between the two countries, as well as China’s elevated role on the global stage. Bound by Siberian natural gasJOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. The Russian-Chinese partnership is based on energy supplies, explains columnist Pierre Haski in France Inter (France): “For China, Russia is a treasure trove of fossil fuels on its doorstep, which is particularly valuable in these time of energy uncertainty. You only have to look at the delegation that accompanied Putin to China: all the energy oligarchs travelled with him. A second 7,000 km gas pipeline between Russia and China is being planned, Power of Siberia 2, which will deliver an additional 50 billion cubic metres of gas per year. ... This reinforcing of their energy partnership means it is highly improbable that the two countries will fall out in the foreseeable future.” Not bromance but functional alliance The bond between Xi and Putin is about shared interests rather than shared ideology, explains Handelsblatt (Germany): “Both leaders want to push back against a world that has been dominated by the US for decades. And both stand to gain when Washington spreads chaos. Trump’s impulsive foreign policy, his mixed messages in the Middle East and his erratic alliances are providing Beijing and Moscow with just the script they need. ... There is no bromance beneath the ostentatious harmony between these two autocrats. It’s a functional alliance between two major powers which have learned that chaos can sometimes be the strongest bond in geopolitical partnerships.”