March 22: As Russia tightens ties with China, West offers $16 billion lifeline to Kyiv. Chinese President Xi Jinping was due to fly out of Moscow on Wednesday after a grandiose show of solidarity with Russian President Vladimir Putin against the West, but without offering direct support for Putin’s war in Ukraine.
During his two-day visit, Xi barely mentioned the Ukraine conflict, saying in closing remarks on Tuesday that China had a “non-partisan stance”. Xi Jinping also hinted more aggressive steps against west in near future in alliance with Russia.
Responding to the Xi-Putin meeting, the White House said China’s position was not impartial and called on Beijing to pressure Russia to withdraw from Ukraine’s sovereign territory to end Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II.
As Xi prepared to leave Moscow, air raid sirens sounded over the Ukrainian capital of Kiev and in the north and east of Ukraine with reports of drone strikes but no major destruction.
Heralded by the Kremlin as a show of support for its most powerful friend, Xi Jinping’s visit to Moscow featured carefully staged pomp and ceremony, but the spectacle was also marked by plenty of demonstrative bonhomie between the two autocrats.
Xi and Putin referred to each other as dear friends, promised economic cooperation and described their countries’ relations as the best they had ever been.
The joint statement included familiar accusations against the West – that Washington is undermining global stability and NATO is encroaching on the Asia-Pacific region – while asserting that the close partnership between China and Russia does not constitute a “military-political alliance”.
In Ukraine, Putin praised Xi Jinping for the peace plan he proposed last month and blamed Kiev and the West for rejecting it. The West sees China’s peace plan as a ploy to buy Putin time to regroup his forces and tighten his grip on the occupied country.