Putin arrives in Beijing to cement Russia-China alliance after Trump's visit

Vladimir Putin landed in Beijing on Wednesday, just four days after Donald Trump's departure, a sequence that underscored something unmistakable: China had become the true center of global power. The Russian president arrived with all the ceremonial weight of a state visit, the same formal pageantry that had greeted the American leader. He came to confirm what both capitals wanted the world to see—that the Moscow-Beijing axis remained unshaken by trade wars, export restrictions, or disagreements over Taiwan. "Our relations," Putin said on the eve of his arrival, "have reached truly unprecedented levels."

The comparisons were inevitable and revealing. Trump spoke of Xi Jinping as a good friend, yet the Chinese leader maintained diplomatic distance. Putin and Xi, by contrast, called each other "great friend" and "old friend" without hesitation, and their public interactions carried a warmth Trump seemed to crave but could not obtain. Two decades of Putin's presidency had given them forty opportunities to meet. This was his twenty-fifth visit to China. Eight months had passed since the last one, during celebrations marking the eightieth anniversary of the Second World War's end—a gap that had felt long to both sides. Xi had called Putin "our principal guest" then.

The Kremlin signaled that this summit would serve another purpose: Xi would brief Putin on his conversations with Trump. Such exchanges had become routine. Putin had called Xi shortly after speaking with Washington about Ukraine. Both had spoken after Xi congratulated Trump on his reelection. Fifty years earlier, Nixon's historic visit to Beijing had been Washington's great diplomatic triumph—a move that prevented the two communist powers from drawing closer. Trump had suggested in October that he could "disunite" them, and his Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, had declared an intention to "dilute their ties." That scenario now seemed impossible, given the genuine alignment between Moscow and Beijing and the missteps emanating from the White House.

Russia and China were encouraging each other toward what they called "changes the world has not seen in a century," working to reduce Western influence by strengthening alternative institutions like the BRICS. Trump himself was inadvertently helping them—through tariff walls, attacks on NATO, environmental indifference, and threats toward Greenland and Canada. Trade, security, the vision of a multipolar world, and shared distrust of the United States had cemented their partnership. They had moved in lockstep at the UN Security Council during the Iran crisis, blocking sanctions and emerging strengthened. China had reinforced its image as a responsible power committed to peace, one that did not create conflicts or worsen them, even as the Strait of Hormuz remained closed. Russia had secured orders from across Asia for the oil and gas that the West no longer wanted to buy.

Energy cooperation would dominate the agenda. Russian exports to China had surged thirty-five percent in the first four months of the year, according to Yuri Ushakov, Putin's assistant. "During the Middle East crisis, Russia remains a stable supplier and China is a responsible consumer," Ushakov said. China had been Moscow's leading trading partner for sixteen years, and this visit, coinciding with the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Sino-Russian Treaty of Friendship, would place energy at the center of discussions. The two countries had agreed the previous year to send an additional two and a half million metric tons of oil annually to China. The Power of Siberia 2 pipeline, though already signed, remained stuck in negotiations over price—a painful process for Russia, which came to the table from a position of manifest weakness. First Crimea, then Ukraine, had left it isolated. Western sanctions had eliminated alternatives, and China knew it, using that leverage to negotiate favorable terms. The Middle East crisis had given Putin some breathing room for the first time, though China remained cautious about over-dependence on any single supplier, even Russia. The turmoil in the region, however, might yet shift that calculation.