Russian President Vladimir Putin met Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing on May 20 for talks centered on deepening energy ties and presenting a united front against what both leaders cast as a Western-dominated global order.
Speaking at the start of meetings at the Great Hall of the People, Xi said China and Russia should continue to support each other’s “development and revitalization,” while Putin described bilateral ties as being at an “unprecedented level” and said Russia remained a “reliable energy supplier” amid the war in Iran and closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which has affected global flows and prices for oil and gas.
The summit comes as Russia seeks to lock in new long-term energy deals with China, including progress on the long-delayed Power of Siberia-2 gas pipeline, a project Moscow sees as crucial to replacing lost European gas markets after the invasion of Ukraine.
“So far, China has been dragging its feet, but that could change at this meeting,” Henrik Wachtmeister, a researcher at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs’ China center, told RFE/RL.
Xi, Putin Expected To Sign 21 New Agreements
The war in Iran and the disruption of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz have added urgency to those talks by raising fears in Beijing over energy security and renewed volatility in global oil markets.
Analysts say the crisis has sharpened Moscow’s pitch that overland Russian energy supplies can help China reduce its dependence on vulnerable maritime routes, even as Beijing remains cautious about becoming too reliant on Russia.
“Russia needs the revenue from trade much more than China needs Russian energy specifically,” Wachtmeister said. “Russia has few alternative buyers and sells its oil at discounts due to sanctions. China has multiple suppliers and is overall a much larger economy.”
Putin’s trip, which comes just four days after US President Donald Trump departed Beijing following his own summit with Xi, also highlights the increasingly uneven nature of the China-Russia partnership.
As Russia’s economy struggles under Western sanctions and the prolonged war in Ukraine, Moscow has grown increasingly dependent on China for trade, technology and energy revenues.
Xi and Putin first held a closed-door “narrow format” meeting, typically reserved for more sensitive discussions, before convening broader talks with their respective delegations. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was also scheduled to meet Wang Yi, his Chinese counterpart.
According to the Kremlin, the two leaders are expected to oversee the signing of 21 agreements later on May 20, including a joint statement on strengthening their “comprehensive partnership and strategic interaction” and another declaration promoting a “multipolar world” and “a new type of international relations.”
In remarks carried by Chinese state media, Xi said the international environment was becoming “complex and volatile, with unilateral hegemony running rampant,” language widely interpreted as directed at the United States and its allies.
He also said China and Russia had been able to deepen ties by building “mutual political trust and strategic cooperation.”
Putin invited Xi to visit Russia next year and said ties between Moscow and Beijing were contributing to “global stability.”
The Kremlin has increasingly framed its partnership with China as proof that Western efforts to isolate Russia have failed. But the relationship has become markedly more lopsided since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
China is now Russia’s largest trading partner and buys nearly half of Russian oil exports. Chinese firms have also become critical suppliers of consumer goods, industrial equipment, and dual-use technologies that Western officials say help sustain Russia’s military-industrial base.
Beijing has denied providing lethal military aid to Russia and says it strictly controls exports of dual-use items.
Iran War Revives Debate Over Russian Gas Supplies
The most closely watched issue during the summit remains the proposed Power of Siberia-2 pipeline, a 2,600-kilometer project that would carry 50 billion cubic meters of Russian natural gas annually to China via Mongolia.
Russia has pushed for the project for years, but negotiations have repeatedly stalled over pricing and concerns in Beijing about overdependence on Russian energy.
The Iran war may alter some of that calculus.
With shipping routes through the Strait of Hormuz disrupted, additional overland supplies from Russia have become strategically more attractive for China, which imports much of its oil and liquefied natural gas through maritime routes vulnerable to conflict.
Still, analysts caution that Beijing is unlikely to rush into concessions.
“In a way, Russia is the answer, but Russia is a very slow answer for China, and quite possibly too slow, especially if the war in Iran does get resolved in the next couple of months,” Michael Kimmage, director of the Kennan Institute, a Washington-based think tank, told RFE/RL.
China has spent years diversifying its energy imports and expanding domestic energy security through green technology, while also seeking supplies from Central Asia and the Middle East.
The visit marks 30 years since China and Russia signed a strategic partnership agreement and 25 years since the countries signed their Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation.
