This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission.
The leaders of Russia and China sought to display a unified front in the face of both countries’ increasingly tense relations with the West, hailing their “model” relations during a video call on December 15.
The two neighbors’ ties with the West have been deteriorating in recent years over a wide array of issues and neither was invited to attend U.S. President Joe Biden’s democracy summit last week.
The Kremlin said that President Vladimir Putin told his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, that “a new model of cooperation has been formed between our countries” that includes a “determination to turn our common border into a belt of eternal peace and good-neighborliness.”
“I consider these relations to be a real model for interstate cooperation in the 21st century,” Putin said.
China has come under U.S. and European criticism for human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region and its suppression of political freedoms in Hong Kong as well as its increased military activity in the Indo-Pacific region.
Russia has also been at odds with the West over its assault on the political opposition and the free media and more recently over concerns that its massing of tens of thousands of troops near Ukraine is a prelude to an invasion of its neighbor.
Both China and Russia have rejected the Western criticism, with Moscow denying that it intends to invade Ukraine.
According to the Kremlin, Putin, who has demanded guarantees that NATO will not expand to Ukraine or deploy troops and weapons there, told Xi that talks with NATO and the United States are necessary to obtain legally binding security guarantees.
Xi responded by saying he “understands Russia’s concerns and fully supports our initiative to work out these security guarantees for Russia,” the Kremlin said.
According to Chinese state media, Xi in turn told Putin that “certain international forces” are currently interfering in the internal affairs of China and Russia under the guise of democracy and “brutally” trampling on international law and recognized norms of international relations.
Xi also told Putin that China and Russia should make more joint efforts to safeguard each other’s security interests.
Putin also confirmed he would attend Beijing’s Winter Olympics.
The United States, Britain, Canada, and Australia are not sending political representatives to the Olympics over China’s abuse of Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim minorities in Xinjiang.
Putin said both he and Xi opposed “any attempt to politicize sport and the Olympic movement,” an accusation Moscow has repeatedly leveled at the West.
Revelations of Russia’s state-backed doping program at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi led to it being banned from international competitions. Russian athletes can only compete as “neutrals” if they can prove they haven’t doped.
Officials, including Putin, are banned from attending international competitions unless invited by the leadership of the host country. Xi has invited Putin to attend.
“In February, we will finally be able to meet in person in Beijing,” Putin said, calling Xi his “dear friend.”
