Chinese language minister’s tour underscores nearer ties with Russia

MOSCOW (AP) — China’s protection minister on Monday toured the highest Russian army academy on a go to to the Russian capital that underscored the more and more shut ties between Moscow and Beijing amid the combating in Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted Gen. Li Shangfu within the Kremlin on Sunday, noting that his journey follows a “very productive” three-day state go to to Moscow by Chinese language chief Xi Jinping final month.

Putin emphasised that protection cooperation, together with joint army drills, has helped “strengthen the trust-based strategic relationship” between the 2 international locations.

Li instructed Putin that “relations between our armed forces are rising stronger with each passing day,” including that “your private friendship with the president of China performs a significant position on this course of, and everybody in China is aware of this.”

On Monday, Li visited the army academy of the Russian Normal Employees, the elite establishment for coaching senior army officers.

The Russian Protection Ministry famous in a press release issued after his go to that the academy would welcome greater than 20 senior army officers from China for a coaching course within the fall.

Li’s journey to Moscow displays China’s strengthening engagement with Russia, with which it has carefully aligned its overseas coverage in an try and reshape the world order to decrease the affect of america and its Western allies.

China has refused to criticize Russia’s actions in Ukraine and blamed the U.S. and NATO for upsetting Moscow. Xi’s three-day go to to Russia final month gave a robust political increase to Putin, sending a robust message to Western leaders that their efforts to isolate Moscow have fallen quick.

After the talks, Putin and Xi issued joint declarations pledging to additional bolster their “strategic cooperation,” develop cooperation in vitality, high-tech industries and different spheres and increase using their currencies in mutual commerce to scale back dependence on the West.

After greater than a yr of combating in Ukraine and bruising Western sanctions, Russia’s dependence on China has elevated considerably. Going through Western restrictions on its oil, fuel and different exports, Russia has shifted its vitality flows to China and sharply expanded different exports, leading to a 30% hike in bilateral commerce.

Final month, Putin and Xi additionally vowed to additional develop army cooperation between Moscow and Beijing and conduct extra joint sea and air patrols. Nonetheless, there was no point out of any potential Chinese language weapons provides to Russia that the U.S. and different Western allies feared.

On Friday, the Chinese language overseas minister emphasised that Beijing wouldn’t promote weapons to both aspect within the battle in Ukraine.

Copyright
© 2023 . All rights reserved. This web site will not be supposed for customers positioned inside the European Financial Space.