BEIJING —
President Xi Jinping of China on Friday offered firm
support to President Vladimir Putin of Russia in the Kremlin’s showdown with
the West over Ukraine, strengthening a relationship that presents a continuing
challenge to the United States’ dominance on the world stage.
اضافة اعلان
In a highly choreographed display of solidarity, the two leaders
met in Beijing ahead of the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics, the first
meeting that Xi has held in person with a foreign counterpart in nearly two
years.
The meeting comes at a moment of escalating tensions between the
West and Russia over Ukraine. Putin has amassed more than 100,000 troops to his
neighbor’s north, south and east, in what NATO allies view as a menacing
prelude to an attack.
In a lengthy joint statement, China accused the United States of
stoking protests in Hong Kong and encouraging independence in Taiwan, while
Russia said the United States was playing a similarly destabilizing role in
Ukraine.
“Russia and China stand against attempts by external forces to
undermine security and stability in their common adjacent regions,” according
to the 5,300-word joint statement released by the Kremlin. It said both nations
“intend to counter interference by outside forces in the internal affairs of
sovereign countries under any pretext, oppose color revolutions and will
increase cooperation in the aforementioned areas.”
China has said that the world should not be divided into the
kind of power blocs that defined the era when the Soviet Union and United
States were the two dominant superpowers. And on Friday, China sided with
Russia on one of its key security demands: an end to NATO expansion to the east
and closer to Russia’s borders.
“The sides oppose further enlargement of NATO and call on the
North Atlantic Alliance to abandon its ideologized Cold War approaches,” the
statement said.
Although the intention behind the troop buildup remains
uncertain, the Kremlin has accused the United States of exaggerating the threat
of an invasion and of raising tensions by deploying its own troops to Eastern
Europe. This week, Putin said the United States was trying to goad Russia into
action and complained that the West had ignored Moscow’s demands for security
guarantees.
In scenes initially shown on Russian state television, Putin
greeted Xi on a red carpet at the government guesthouse in western Beijing,
raising his hand in greeting. The Chinese leader responded, through a
translator: “Hello! I’m very glad to see you.”
Putin told Xi that the Chinese-Russian relationship had “taken
on a truly unprecedented character.”
“It is an example of a dignified relationship that helps each of
us develop while supporting each other’s development,” Putin said.
After their meeting, Putin was to attend the opening ceremony of
the Winter Olympics, as the most prominent of nearly two dozen world leaders
whose attendance has blunted the impact of a “diplomatic boycott” by President
Joe Biden and other leaders of democracies.
Despite extraordinary measures both men have taken during the
coronavirus pandemic, neither leader wore a mask as they greeted each other.
In the days leading up to the meeting — the 38th between the two
leaders — Beijing expressed support for Putin’s grievances and it joined Russia
to try to block action on Ukraine at the U.N. Security Council.
Although not a party to the Ukraine conflict, the Chinese
government has viewed the showdown as a test of U.S. influence and resolve that
could distract Biden from his administration’s focus on China as the preeminent
strategic rival of the 21st century.
Any new Chinese promises of economic and political support for
Putin could undermine Biden’s strategy to ostracize the Russian leader for the
military buildup. They could also signal a tectonic shift in the rivalry
between the United States and China, with possible reverberations from Europe
to the Pacific.
Xi and Putin on Friday signaled that their countries would work
to establish closer ties on trade, diplomacy and security.
“Friendship between the two states has no limits,” the pair said
in their joint statement.
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