Putin set to visit China following Trump’s departure

Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to arrive in the Chinese capital on Tuesday for a state visit clearly calibrated to show Beijing’s and Moscow’s alignment in the face of global geopolitical upheaval.

This comes less than a week after Xi Jinping rolled out the red carpet for US President Donald Trump; the Chinese leader is hosting another guest of honour – and this time it’s a close ally.

According to CNN, both Beijing and Moscow are negotiating shifting relationships with Trump’s United States, including whether to play a role in resolving a US-Iran conflict that has engulfed global oil supplies and diverted Washington’s attention away from Russia’s own years-long war in Ukraine.

The report, however, states that both Beijing and Moscow have also looked to seize on Trump’s upending of traditional US foreign policy to advance their own vision of a world that’s not dominated by American power or a US-led alliance system.

CNN further reports that this week’s visit is Putin’s 25th to China in his more than two decades as president – a period in which China and Russia have tightened cooperation across trade, security and diplomacy, driven by a shared mistrust of Washington and an apparent personal affinity between Putin and Xi, who typically refer to each other as “dear” or “old” friends, adding that the two have met more than 40 times.

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Continuing, the report explains that it’s a state-level visit with Putin likely to be welcomed in a ceremony with similar levels of pomp and circumstance – from a red carpet to a military band – to the one Xi afforded Trump last week.

In a message he traditionally gives ahead of his trips to China, Putin hailed Russia-China relations as having reached a “truly unprecedented level.”

The two sides support “each other on matters affecting the core interests of both countries, including protection of sovereignty and state unity,” he said in a message published on Tuesday.

Ahead of the visit, Chinese state media also carried articles praising the two countries’ “unshakeable” bonds in a “turbulent international situation.”

An article in the state-backed Global Times also framed the nearly back-to-back visits by American and Russian leaders as a sign that China was “fast emerging as the focal point of global diplomacy.”

(CNN)