Xi, Putin welcome closer ties hours after Trump inauguration

Hong Kong
CNN
—

Chinese leader Xi Jinping pledged to take his country's relations with Russia to a new level this year during a video conference with his counterpart Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, hours after the inauguration of US President Donald Trump.

The two leaders made their annual conversation a tradition as the new year approached, a sign of a close personal rapport that helped cement a partnership between their countries that has only grown as Putin wages war. to Ukraine.

Xi expressed his willingness to guide China-Russia relations to a new high and respond to external uncertainties with stability and resilience in China-Russia relations, according to a statement from the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

The two countries should deepen strategic coordination and practical cooperation and firmly support each other, Xi told the Russian president, who appeared via video link on a large screen in Beijing's Great Hall of the People during the conference call.

Putin hailed countries that have expanded trade, which Chinese data shows reached a record level last year, and hinted at their shared ambitions to reshape a world order they see as unfairly dominated. by the United States.

We are united in advocating for a more just multipolar world order and working to ensure indivisible security both in the Eurasian space and globally, Putin told Xi, according to a Kremlin statement. The joint efforts of Moscow and Beijing objectively play a major stabilizing role in international affairs, he said.

The call between the two autocrats comes as both are closely monitoring Trump's return to the White House.

The two leaders have each publicly expressed their hope of repairing strained relations with the United States under the new administration. Trump has also expressed interest in engaging or meeting with both leaders early in his presidency, although it is not yet clear how conciliatory or hard-line the new administration will be toward either American rival.

Xi and Trump had their own call days before the US president's inauguration, with the conversation touching on a range of topics including the war in Ukraine, Trump later said.

Xi told Putin about the phone call during a conversation lasting more than an hour and a half between the two leaders on Tuesday, according to Kremlin adviser Yury Ushakov, who added that the timing of the call did not had nothing to do with Trump's inauguration.

Questions of relations between the two countries and the United States were also raised, he said. Against this background, the leaders naturally discussed some aspects of developing potential contacts with the US administration, Ushakov said, according to Russia's official TASS news agency.

Trump has expressed personal admiration for both autocrats, but he also expects each of them to make concessions toward leveling the economic playing field between the United States and China and ending Putin's assault on Ukraine.

Trump indicated Tuesday that he would consider imposing additional sanctions on Russia if Putin does not come to the negotiating table to end the war.

We were talking to (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelensky. We will speak with President Putin very soon and we will see how this all goes, Trump said.

Trump also suggested he hoped Xi could use his influence to play a role in resolving that conflict, noting that he had urged the Chinese leader during his recent call to resolve it.

European leaders have long hoped that Xi could play a role in getting Putin to accept Ukraine's peace terms, but Trump's entry into the White House and his stated desire to end the war add new potential so that China can play a role.

This could set up a delicate balancing act for Beijing. Xi has long sought to portray China as a potential peace mediator in the conflict, even as the United States and its allies accuse Beijing of supporting the Russian war effort by exporting dual-use goods, which Beijing denies. Xi also appears keen to establish good relations with Trump to avoid potentially damaging tariffs at a time of economic weakness in China.

But the Chinese leader will probably also want to be careful not to damage his partnership with Russia. Xi and Putin signed a no-holds-barred partnership weeks before Putin's invasion and Xi views his Russian counterpart as a critical partner in broader frictions with the West.

Neither the Kremlin statement nor that of the Chinese Foreign Ministry clarified whether the war in Ukraine was discussed during Tuesday's call between Putin and Xi.

Instead, both readings referred to the 80th anniversary of the allied victory shared by Beijing and Moscow in World War II. Xi and Putin had invited each other to commemorate the victory together this year, with events in Russia in May and China in September, the Kremlin announced on Tuesday.

CNN's Betsy Klein and Fred He contributed to this report.