Days after Ukrainian drone attacks shook Moscow, Russian leader Vladimir Putin traveled to Beijing, where he met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Wednesday, looking for support for his country’s economy and to show his close ties with Russia’s most important strategic partner.
Putin arrived shortly after President Trump left, in back-to-back visits that displayed Xi’s increasing centrality to global events. In a matter of days, two military powers, the U.S. and Russia, have each sought China’s help with their conflicts in Iran and Ukraine.
For Putin, the visit comes amid a bloody stalemate in the war. Ukraine has dramatically scaled up its production of explosive drones that have kept Russia’s army from achieving notable battlefield advances and are being used to attack oil infrastructure and military targets inside Russia. Ukraine carried out its biggest attack on Moscow in more than a year on Sunday, launching hundreds of drones and killing three civilians.
The Russian leader also used a Chinese idiom to express to Xi how much he had missed him: “A day without you feels like three autumns have passed.”
Putin told Xi that the friendly relations between their countries are a stabilizing factor on the international stage, and the two countries are working to build a “more just and democratic world order,” according to Russia’s state-run RIA Novosti news agency.
Xi said the countries’ relationship had reached a high level because they have “continuously deepened political mutual trust and strategic cooperation” and work to “uphold international fairness and justice,” according to China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Russian and Chinese leaders have formed an unusually close tie that some analysts have called a “strategic bromance.” Xi gave Putin a cake for his 61st birthday during a summit in Bali, which they celebrated with sausages and vodka. Putin reciprocated in Tajikistan with a cake marking Xi’s 66th, decorated with birthday wishes in Chinese.
The two leaders, now in their early 70s, have also connected over the issue of longevity. A hot-mic moment during a stroll in Beijing last year caught them lauding the power of modern technology to reverse aging.
The two have met dozens of times, including nine face-to-face meetings since the start of the Ukraine war in 2022. They have held talks in Zhongnanhai, the walled-off leadership compound where Xi brought Trump on Friday.
That personal connection between Putin and Xi has underscored a deepening economic relationship.
Trade between the two countries surged in the early years of the Ukraine war, as China bought oil and gas from Russia and sold it consumer goods and equipment with military applications used to sustain the war effort. That trade cooled last year as energy prices dropped and Russia cut imports of Chinese cars.
Putin is likely to push for increased energy exports to China, the world’s largest oil importer, which seeks to diversify its sources and keep prices low. China receives up to half of its oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, including almost all of Iran’s crude exports.
The Hormuz lockdown, with Iran stopping most shipping and the U.S. blockading Iranian ports, could encourage China to buy more oil from Russia, which is increasingly reliant on Beijing to offset lost trade with Europe.
“The Iran war is driving oil prices higher, and China has insecurities about its supplies,” said Joseph Webster, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Center who studies Russia-China ties.
That could mean the two leaders discuss pipeline proposals such as the Power of Siberia 2. Moscow has long pushed that project to carry natural gas to China through Mongolia, but Beijing has been cautious, holding out for further concessions from Moscow officials under pressure to complete a deal.
With China’s gas consumption likely to decline, sales via a new pipeline might not cover the infrastructure investment, Webster said.
A project that might be more feasible to expand is the Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean pipeline, which carries oil primarily from eastern Russia to China and Russia’s Kozmino port, a terminal near Vladivostok.
Expanding the overland route would enable the flow of more oil directly to China without transferring it to tankers, enhancing China’s oil security, Webster said.
Putin may also seek Xi’s help on obtaining dual-use equipment with military applications. China has provided equipment including computer chips, drone parts and navigation equipment to Russia, which depends on this aid for its campaign in Ukraine.
China also supplies drone parts to Ukraine, such as the fiber-optic cable used to make drones impervious to jamming. But the volumes are far lower. Last year, China sold more than $40 million of such cable to Russia and about $6 million to Ukraine, according to Chinese customs data reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
Putin will want to further reduce that supply to Ukraine, said McFaul.
“His dream goal would be to get Chinese companies to stop providing drone components to Ukraine,” he said. “He’s tried to cut off that before and been unsuccessful. It would be a huge achievement.”