Putin heads to Beijing days after Trump in test of China’s direction
TOPSHOT – Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) shows the way to Russian President Vladimir Putin after the photo session of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit 2025 at the Meijiang Convention and Exhibition Centre in Tianjin on September 1, 2025.
Suo Takekuma | Afp | Getty Images
Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to arrive in Beijing on Tuesday for a two-day summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, visiting an ally that barely had time to clear the ceremonial trappings it laid out for U.S. President Donald Trump just days earlier.
The summit, scheduled for May 19-20, marks the second time the Chinese and Russian leaders have met in the past year, as Beijing seeks to manage ties with Washington and Moscow while positioning itself as a pivotal power in global diplomacy. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 left Moscow effectively isolated and heavily reliant on Beijing for trade under Western sanctions.
“We have very serious expectations for this visit,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Monday, describing the agenda as advancing the two countries’ “privileged and strategic partnership.”
The U.S. has long pressed Beijing to reduce economic support for Moscow that Western officials say helps sustain Russia’s military capacity. NATO labeled China a “decisive enabler” of the Ukraine war, citing Chinese firms’ supply of dual-use goods used to replenish Russian munitions.
‘Strategic triangle’
China holds “strong leverage” for this summit as its support has become increasingly important to Putin amid mounting economic pressures in Russia and military setbacks in Ukraine, said Andrius Tursa, Central and Eastern Europe advisor at consultancy Teneo.
Moscow slashed its growth forecast for this year to 0.4% from 1.3% as its economy reels from Ukrainian attacks on oil infrastructure and export terminals that underpin Russian war financing and the uncertainty over the future of U.S. sanctions waivers.
Putin will seek reassurance that any improvement in China’s ties with Washington will not alter the “strategic triangle” that keeps China and Russia closer than either is with the U.S., said Dennis Wilder, a former U.S. intelligence official and professor at Georgetown University.
Trump’s visit last week featured a lavish state banquet and yielded several deliverables, including $17 billion in annual agricultural purchases through 2028, a 200-aircraft Boeing order, and a September meeting by the Chinese leader in Washington.
Putin’s visit, by contrast, is expected to be more practical as part of routine dealings between the two countries, Tursa said. But the size and composition of the Russian delegation suggest Putin hopes to expand bilateral cooperation across multiple areas, he added.
Chinese state media embraced the optics of back-to-back visits regardless. The Global Times described the sequencing as evidence that Beijing is “fast emerging as the focal point of global diplomacy,” noting that hosting leaders of both the U.S….
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