At a moment Vladimir Putin is demanding an urgent meeting with NATO in order to discuss Russia's security concerns over the Western military alliance's expanding presence, and as rhetoric is still escalating over Ukraine, the Kremlin has announced that Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping will hold a video conference on Wednesday to discuss "aggressive" language from the US and NATO.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov described that "The situation in international affairs, especially on the European continent, is very, very tense right now and requires discussion between allies."
He underscored that "We see very, very aggressive rhetoric on the NATO and US side, and this requires discussion between us and the Chinese." And Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin agreed in a separate statement, saying that Putin and Xi will discuss "views on major international and regional issues of common concern."
Notably the Xi-Putin meeting will come a mere week after the Russian president's two-hour virtual summit with President Joe Biden. While both agreed on a need for open communications and diplomacy, and there's since been contradictory reports that Biden may have agreed to hold low-level talks addressing Putin's demand for "legal guarantees" preventing further NATO expansion eastward, the accusatory barbs and general war-footing atmosphere have only continued.
More recently, both Russia and China were subject of critical discussion by the US and other G-7 leaders, with the Group of 7 issuing a statement on Sunday condemning "Russia’s military build-up and aggressive rhetoric towards Ukraine."
On China, Reuters noted in its G-7 coverage that "While Russian President Vladimir Putin keeps the West guessing over Ukraine, it was the might of Chinese President Xi Jinping that garnered the long-term strategic focus when the diplomats from the Group of Seven richest democracies met this weekend."
For all the attempts at isolating both Russia and China - something which began under the Trump administration but has been ratcheted up during Biden - the end result has been to push the two large powers which share a long border into closer cooperation and dialogue, which has lately included semi-regular joint military exercises.
Once rivals and enemies in the 20th century, then 'frenemies', and now increasingly cooperative and strategic allies - Russia and China seem to have forged an unlikely alliance on the mere basis being target of Washington sanctions and human rights rhetoric.
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