Vladimir Putin heads to China for talks with Xi Jinping | DW News

Vladimir Putin heads to China for talks with Xi Jinping | DW News

We Begin the day observing a partnership that is supposed to have no limits it’s been more than two years since the Russian and Chinese presidents used those words no limits to describe the bilateral relations between them and their Nations well we are about to get an updated idea of just where that relationship now stands it is now early Thursday in China and Russian President Vladimir Putin has just touched down there his first trip abroad since the start of his fifth presidential term last week now leaders from Europe and the United States they will be watching and listening carefully they’ve already called out Beijing for supporting Moscow in its invasion of Ukraine but is this an arrangement born out of principles or born out of postery DW’s East Asia correspondent James Chader has this report last March Chinese president Xi Jinping made Russia his first overseas trip after securing ing a third term as leader Moscow a symbolic Choice after years of pandemic isolation Putin now just a week after his fifth inauguration as Russian President Vladimir Putin is returning the honor making Beijing the first foreign trip of his new term both countries are interested in projecting unity in the face of what they say is a global order dominated by the United States when Russia’s foreign minister Sergey lavro was in Beijing last month he hailed what Moscow and Beijing call their No Limits partnership more than once our leaders President Putin and president Xi Jinping have stressed the determination of Russia and China to counter attempts to slow down the formation of a multi-polar world to slow down the long overdue processes of democratization and Justice as they celebrate 75 years of diplomatic ties China is very much the senior partner the two sides have deepened military exchanges since Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine more than 2 years ago and even more importantly for Moscow trade ties between the two have ballooned providing Russia an economic Lifeline amid sweeping International sanctions in response Western leaders have warned XI against providing Moscow with support for its Invasion some have even asked shei to reign in Putin we count on China to use all its influence on Russia to end Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine but China’s leader has largely brushed off the criticism and ignored the requests we oppose using the Ukraine crisis to cast blame smear a third country and incite a new Cold War xining and Vladimir Putin share a disdain for us Global Leadership but with Moscow increasingly isolated diplomatically and its economy largely propped up by Beijing both know their No Limits partnership is no longer one between equals Dimitri abovich is a geopolitical analyst who focuses on Russia and China he is also the author of the book World on the brink how America can beat China in the race for the 21st century and Dimitri joins me tonight right here Demitri it’s good to have you with us the two leaders here say that they enjoy a No Limits partnership so let me just ask you what are the real limits here well the limits are actually huge neither country is actually allies of each other they’re at most friends of convenience and certainly from China’s perspective this is a very transactional relationship China is looking to buy fossil fuels from Russia oil gas and coal at a significant discount to help its own uh economy but in terms of exports to Russia Russia is actually tiny market for China it is the 16th overall in terms of exports for them and uh is not at all strategic and even when it comes to fossil fuels one of the top priorities for Putin as he embarks on the Strip is going to be to sync uh to sign a deal on the power of Siberia to um gas pipeline to redirect the gas that was originally destined to go to Europe to China the Chinese have been dragging their feet on this and negotiating a very hard barking on price uh that makes it uh not a very attractive deal for Russia I want to talk about weapons um for a moment here um Putin we know clearly needs China’s backing for his war in Ukraine but he’s only getting weapons or aid from Iran and North Korea do you think that’s going to change anytime soon I don’t so look China is perfectly willing to sell anything um that Putin is going to buy as long as it does not result in sanctions from the United States so it is clearly afraid of jeopardizing the the US relationship any further and and the European one as well so when it comes to lethal weapons it is not going to budge on that because it knows that it cannot afford right now particularly when its economy is not doing well to come under these sanctions now dual use uh equipment uh it’s certainly going to continue sending that whether it’s semiconductors whether it’s uh machines to manufacture Advanced Weapons Systems that is going to be delivered through Black Market means uh through resellers in China Xian ping last week was in France When Vladimir Putin um shook his nuclear rattle if you will by announcing tactical nuclear weapons drills um with Belarus I mean how does toy with the nuclear threat how does that go down with xiin ping not well and in fact Shin ping has been critical when uh Putin last try to use the nuclear blackmail card in the fall of 2022 when his forces were surrounded in the city of Kong and there was fear on the US side that he might actually uh either test a nuclear weapon or threaten to use a nuclear weapon on the battlefield in Ukraine they approach China as well as other leaders to send a clear message to to Putin that this is unacceptable and China did so China does not want to see the breaking of the Taboo in the use of nuclear weapons because they themselves would be impacted by this in a potential conflict uh with the US over Taiwan for for example I’m wondering um de Tre where does Russia fit in with China’s confrontation with the West particularly with the United States I mean a valuable Ally or is it more of a useful distraction we know US foreign policy assets they’ve been tied up um dealing with Ukraine we know that the Biden Administration wanted to focus on China it did and uh you know this is uh sort of a a trend line and American foreign policy over the last decade that we try to Pivot to Asia and every single time something else whether it’s the Middle East or Europe uh tends to intervene and pull us back and look I think for China um this war is uh is not something I think they desired originally uh but they’ve learn not to just live with it but actually benefit from it they’re getting cheap gas and oil from Russia they’re uh um increasingly um Russia is becoming economically dependent on China and becoming a vassel state to China and America is distracted it is sending weapons and Munitions that it might need in a conflict in Asia to Ukraine uh it’s spending so much of its resources diplomatically and economically on this conflict so that is all highly beneficial to China so let’s let’s consider then when the United States does focus more on China in an article that you published today in foreign affairs you argue that the Taiwan situation has relevant similarities with the Cold War situation of West Berlin how should Washington go back to the old Moscow Playbook when it’s dealing with Beijing well the key to understanding the Cold War and the importance of West Berlin is that when the Berlin Wall was built in 1961 it actually lowered the tensions dramatically in the Cold War because Berlin West Berlin was the one flasho that threatened to take the US and and the Soviet Union to nuclear conflict obviously there was Cuba as well for 13 days uh there was actually an outgrowth of of the West Berlin crisis in 1962 but pretty much after 1962 um the threat of conflict diminished dramatically and you had a Deton in the 1970s improvements in relations Arms Control agreements and the like you could have the same thing between the United States and China but you have to convince China that taking Taiwan is untenable that it will not happen and just like kusov decided to abandon his Ambitions to take West Berlin China has to abandon its Ambitions on Taiwan in order to see improveed relations yeah you right that ultimately there can be no datant with China without the creation of a figurative wall across the Taiwan Street what would that look like so it’s all about deterrence we have to convince president XI that taking Taiwan is impossible militarily and even if it’s if he thinks it might not be impossible militarily that the economic cost would be disastrous so it means invent inventing investing in significant deterrence capabilities military deterrence capabilities in the region with the Taiwanese but it also means inre ining our economic leverage over China in areas like semiconductors for example artificial intelligence and reducing their economic leverage over us in the areas of green technologies like electric vehicles like batteries which we’ve just seen uh the Biden administrations Place tariffs on you you say just as it was in the Cold War for the United States stalling can be a winning strategy when we’re talking about China you see slowing China’s Advance down a month here or a year there is critical and you say as is letting China make its own mistakes what would be the biggest mistake in your opinion that China could make moving forward it’s really economic they’re mismanaging their economy they have a huge real estate bubble their youth unemployment is over 15% uh president XI seems completely uninterested in fixing those fundamental economic issues and on top of that he has a demographic collapse that’s going to manifest itself in the coming decades China is doing nothing about all of those problems and as long as that continues um their economy will always be smaller than the United States which means less money to span on projects like the Bel and Road initiatives and on their military Dimitri alperovich we appreciate your time and valuable analysis tonight thank you thanks so much

It’s been more than two years since the Russian and Chinese presidents used those words ‘no limts’ to describe the bilateral relations between them and their nations. Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to touch down in China, his first trip abroad since since the start of his fifth presidential term last week.

Leaders from Europe and the US will be watching and listening. They’ve already called out Beijing for supporting Moscow in its invasion of Ukraine. But is this an arrangement borne out of principles or posturing?

Chapters
00:00 Putin heads to China for ralks
03:11 Dmitri Alperovitch, Geopolitical Analyst

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