Putin and Xi exchange warm words and promise never to ‘interfere in each other’s internal affairs’

The leaders’ virtual meeting comes just days after China and Russia were both sidelined from a summit organised by Joe Biden

Russian president Vladimir Putin met Chinese president Xi Jinping in a virtual call on Wednesday (Sputnik/Mikhail Metzel/Pool via Reuters)

Vladimir Putin held talks with Xi Jinping at a virtual meeting in which he said the countries’ shared border could be turned “into a belt of eternal peace and good neighbourliness”.

The video call between the two leaders was held on Wednesday to discuss bilateral ties and international relations as China and Russia both try to counter the US and other western forces.

“A new model of cooperation has been formed between our countries, based among other things on such principles as not interfering in internal affairs [of each other], respect for each other’s interests, determination to turn the shared border into a belt of eternal peace and good neighbourliness,” Mr Putin said, according to the Associated Press.

Praising the relations between the two countries, Mr Xi said he “appreciates” Mr Putin for strongly supporting “China’s efforts to protect key national interests and firmly opposed attempts to drive a wedge between our countries”.

Mr Putin and Mr Xi also said the relations between the two countries was “a proper example of interstate cooperation in the 21st century”.

The leaders have met 36 times since the Chinese leader assumed his role in 2013, including in another video conference last June, reported The Moscow Times.

The video call comes just days after both Russia and China were left out of the democracy summit organised by US president Joe Biden and as Russia’s alleged troop buildup near Ukraine’s border increased tension in the region.

Ukraine and the west fear the move was indicative of a Russian plan for an invasion, with the US and UK warning Moscow last week of “serious consequences” if its troops entered Ukraine.

Russia, on the other hand, accused Ukraine of deploying half its army to confront pro-Russian separatists in the country’s war-torn east.

Russia’s relations with the west were severely dented after it annexed Crimea in 2014, for which the country was slapped with international sanctions.

China too faces international sanctions, for human rights abuses in its Xinjiang region as well as its crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong.

While the two countries were rivals during the Cold War, they’ve grown closer in recent years to counter the US. A number of steps have been taken by the countries to align their foreign policies to put pressure on the US. The two countries signed a roadmap last month for closer military ties, accusing the US of frequently dispatching strategic bomber flights near the borders of both the countries.

Russia’s defence minister Sergei Shoigu accused the US of deploying 30 such missions in October alone.

The foreign ministers of the two countries had also met in March to put up a show of unity against western sanctions.