Feb 4, 2022: Chinese President Xi Jinping is set to hold his first face-to-face meeting with a world leader in nearly two years on Friday as he hosts his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin amid tensions with the West over Ukraine and other issues.
Xi has not left China since January 2020, when the country suffered its first COVID-19 outbreak and locked down the central city of Wuhan, where the virus was first detected.
Now he is ready to meet with more than 20 leaders as Beijing kicks off the Winter Olympics, which he hopes will be a soft-power triumph and shift focus away from a build-up blighted by a diplomatic boycott and coronavirus fears.
A top Kremlin adviser said in a press briefing on Wednesday that Xi and Putin would meet in the Chinese capital before their nations could issue a joint statement reflecting their “common views” on security and other issues. The two leaders will then attend the opening ceremony of the Olympics on Friday evening.
Rising tensions with the West have strengthened ties between the world’s largest and most populous nations, and Putin was the first foreign leader to confirm his presence at the opening ceremony.
China’s state-run Xinhua news agency published an article by Putin on Thursday in which the Russian leader photographed two neighbors with increasingly common global goals. “Harmony in foreign policy between Russia and China is based on a close and harmonious approach to resolving global and regional issues,” Putin wrote.
He also criticized the US-led Western diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympics, which was sparked by China’s human rights record. “Unfortunately, there has been a recent intensification of efforts by many countries to politicize sports for their own interests,” Putin wrote, calling such moves “fundamentally wrong.”
For its part, China has been vocal in its support of Russia in its dispute with Ukraine over NATO powers. Last week, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi called Russia’s security concerns “legitimate” and said they should be “taken seriously and addressed.” On Thursday, Wang held face-to-face talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov before meeting Xi and Putin in Beijing.
The state-run China Daily quoted Wang as saying that Beijing was ready to work with Moscow “to deepen the temporary friendship and comprehensive strategic coordination between the two countries”.
Moscow is seeking support after the deployment of 100,000 troops near its border with Ukraine, prompting Western countries to warn of an attack and threaten “serious consequences” in response to the Russian attack.
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