Russia looks to cosy up with China after Trump’s meeting with Xi

Russian officials appeared eager Monday to reaffiirm Moscow’s alliance with China following U.S. President Donald Trump’s high-profile meeting with Xi Jinping.

Hot on the heels of Trump’s talks with Xi last week, which the U.S. president described as “amazing,” Russia has now sent a large delegation of its own to China for deal-making and talks.

Russia’s Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin arrived in Hangzhou on Monday for two-day talks with his Chinese counterpart, Li Qiang, with the officials signing a range of agreements, Russian state media reported, to deepen cooperation in the fields of trade, investment, energy, transport, agriculture and space.

Calling his Chinese counterpart his “dear friend,” Mishustin said in comments reported by Russian state news agency Ria Novosti, that relations between Russia and China were “at their highest level in their centuries-long history and continue to develop dynamically in all areas, despite various obstacles and illegal Western sanctions.”

For his part, Li Qiang said Beijing was ready to strengthen cooperation with Russia despite obstacles, although he did not specify what he was referring to.

“Despite new external risks and challenges in this process, China and Russia always support each other, build strategic contacts and interactions, and strive to jointly overcome difficulties,” he said, TASS reported. He added that the partnership “demonstrates that China and Russia are good neighbors and reliable partners who can always trust each other.”

China is Russia’s most important and powerful international ally, with Beijing having refused to condemn Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and the ongoing war, echoing Russia’s rhetoric by calling the war a “crisis.”

Just ahead of its invasion of Ukraine, Putin and Xi signed a “no limits” partnership and Russia has looked to leverage that alliance both in terms of geopolitical support and trade partnerships, to lessen the impact of Western sanctions which have curtailed its energy export market.

Ahead of this week’s trip, the Kremlin said it placed “very great” importance on the talks and it has certainly looked to reflect that in the delegation sent to Asia, with Mishustin accompanied by a range of top officials including his deputies and ministers of finance, agriculture, transport, economic development and trade.

Space and nuclear energy officials were also in tow, with the director general of Roscosmos and head of Rosatom joining the delegation.

Russian officials’ two-day visit to China comes just days after Trump’s high-profile meeting with Chinese President Xi last week in which he said the leaders had reached “agreement on many issues.” Xi, meanwhile, said Beijing and Washington should be “partners and friends.”

In what was widely seen as a “trade truce” after months of escalating tensions over tariffs and counter-tariffs, Trump said he reached a 1-year agreement with China on rare earth supplies and he also cut fentanyl-linked tariffs on Beijing by half, taking overall duties on Chinese goods down to 47%.

Moscow did not publicly comment on the meeting and was likely uncomfortable at the sight of its longtime ally China holding seemingly constructive (and reconstructive) talks with the U.S., with whom it has seen a sharp deterioration of relations in recent weeks.

Trump pulled out of in-person talks that were due to take place with Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying he did not want to “have a wasted meeting,” signaling his frustration with Moscow over a lack of movement on the Ukraine war.

Trump added that the summit had been canceled because “every time I speak to Vladimir, I have good conversations and then they don’t go anywhere.”

Russia was non-plussed by the cancelation, with senior Russian officials blaming Western media and “fake news” for the jettisoned talks.