Putin at Xi's: Friendship without borders put to the test

China is once again at the center of global diplomacy this week, as Russian leader Vladimir Putin is in Beijing today and tomorrow to meet with Xi Jinping, just days after US President Donald Trump's state visit to the country.

The timing of the visit, according to analysts, underscores China's influential position in an international order that is increasingly divided and marked by great power rivalry.

The Kremlin says it has "very serious expectations" from the meeting and that Moscow and Beijing will continue to deepen their "particularly privileged and strategic partnership"

The so-called “borderless” partnership between China and Russia, the world’s largest producer of natural resources, has strengthened since the West imposed sanctions to punish Russia over the war in Ukraine. “We and our Chinese friends call it a particularly privileged and strategic partnership,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Topics are expected to include bilateral economic and trade issues, as well as discussions on international and regional issues.

The two leaders have met more than 40 times, far exceeding the number of Xi's meetings with Western leaders, the British "Guardian" reminds.

In the midst of Moscow’s isolation from the West over its invasion of Ukraine, China has become Russia’s largest trading partner by far, supplying more than a third of its imports and buying more than a quarter of its exports. Beijing has bought more than $367 billion worth of Russian fossil fuels since the start of the war, according to data compiled by the Center for Energy and Clean Air Research.

However, the partnership reportedly also has a military dimension. A Reuters investigation in July 2025 found that Chinese companies allegedly used shell companies to ship drone engines disguised as industrial cooling equipment to Russian arms manufacturers - a claim Beijing denies.

The Russian delegation in Beijing will include relevant deputy prime ministers, ministers and company leaders, Peksov said yesterday.

Asked whether plans for the proposed Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline, which could one day deliver an additional 50 billion cubic meters of gas per year from Russia's Arctic gas fields through Mongolia to China, would be considered, a Kremlin spokesman said that "all issues on the economic agenda of our bilateral relations will, of course, be considered."

Xi and Putin exchanged "congratulatory letters" on Sunday, in which the Chinese leader, according to media reports, stated that bilateral cooperation between Russia and China has "continuously deepened and strengthened," noting that this year marks the 30th anniversary of the two countries' strategic partnership.

An article published on Monday in China’s state-run tabloid Global Times said the visits by the US and Russian presidents show Beijing is “rapidly emerging as a focal point of global diplomacy.” The article said: “The visits, which come so close together, have drawn widespread attention, with analysts noting that it is extremely rare in the post-Cold War era for a country to host the leaders of the US and Russia within seven days.”

Ahead of the Putin-Xi summit, Klaus Sung of the German Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS) told Deutsche Welle that the current geopolitical landscape has put Beijing in a favorable position. “Both the United States and Russia need China at the moment, although in different ways: Washington is looking for a strategic rival, while Moscow wants a partner with similar geopolitical and energy interests,” he said.

For Putin, the immediate priority is to reaffirm close ties with Xi and assess Beijing's current thinking. A more forward-looking question, Sung suggested, is who could act as a credible mediator if Russia were to try to end the war in Ukraine.

Recent signals - including a more modest Victory Day parade and continued Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil infrastructure - suggest that Moscow may be feeling war fatigue. Putin has even hinted that the conflict may be nearing an end.

Since the start of Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Putin has met frequently with Xi. For Beijing, the relationship remains a strategic priority, Sung noted — though the balance of power is asymmetrical, with Russia now relying far more on China than vice versa. “It may not be in China’s interest for the war in Ukraine to continue,” he added, “but the greater risk for China would be regime collapse.” Beijing would view regime collapse in both Iran and Russia as a negative outcome.

"China and Russia are like a couple sharing the same bed but dreaming different dreams," Sung said, describing their interests as aligned but not identical.

For China, one of the key goals is to secure a more reliable and sustainable energy supply - but without becoming overly dependent on Russian oil, which would give Moscow leverage.

"There is no such thing as an 'unlimited partnership,'" Sung said, alluding to past rhetoric about China-Russia relations and suggesting that the visit could even signal a possible cooling in relations.

Sung believes that certain agreements will likely be signed, but points out that, in the case of countries like China and Russia, such agreements are often just a first step and do not mean that key issues have truly been resolved.

When Putin and Xi met in Beijing in early 2022, just before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, they declared that “the friendship between the two countries has no borders.” However, Chinese officials have since downplayed the statement, with Fu Cong, China’s ambassador to the EU at the time, describing the phrase as “nothing but rhetoric.”

However, that does not mean that Beijing and Moscow are not aligned. “If China is weighing its options between Europe and Russia, Russia still has more to offer,” Sung said.