Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived at Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport on Mar. 20 for a three-day state visit to Russia during which he is slated to hold landmark talks with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
Upon his arrival, Xi told reporters that Moscow and Beijing sought to act in tandem to “uphold the UN-centric international system” and “safeguard the world order based on international law and the fundamental norms of international relations [based on the] principles of the UN Charter.”
Quoted by Russia’s TASS news agency, Xi said both countries, as major powers and permanent UN Security Council members, sought to promote “multipolarity” and a “more just and rational” approach to global governance.
Xi, who secured an unprecedented third term as China’s president earlier this month, said he planned to hold wide-ranging talks with Putin regarding bilateral relations and other issues of mutual concern.
He also voiced confidence that his visit would lend “new impetus” to the development of China-Russia relations and a “new era” of strategic cooperation.
Shortly before Xi’s arrival, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also confirmed that the two leaders would discuss a Chinese proposal for resolving the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
“The topics that were touched upon in this [Chinese] plan will inevitably be raised during the exchange of views on Ukraine,” Peskov said.
The issue of Ukraine, he added, “will feature on the agenda.”
Unveiled by Beijing earlier this month, the 12-point plan calls for a cessation of hostilities, the resumption of negotiations, guarantees to ensure global supply-chain security, and an end to unilateral sanctions and what it calls the “Cold War mentality.”
In a Mar. 19 article published in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-run newspaper People’s Daily, Putin voiced appreciation for Beijing’s “well-balanced stance on events in Ukraine” and its “understanding of their historical background and root causes.”
Putin also welcomed what he described as Beijing’s “readiness to make a meaningful contribution to the settlement of the crisis,” according to the Kremlin’s translation of the article.
Later in the same article, Putin asserts that Moscow “is open to the political and diplomatic resolution of the Ukraine crisis.” He also claims that it “was not Russia who broke off the peace talks [with Kyiv] back in April 2022.”
According to Putin, the future of the Russia-Ukraine peace process “depends solely on the will to engage in a meaningful discussion taking into account current geopolitical realities.”
On the same day Putin’s article was published, U.S. National Security Council John Kirby said that calls for a ceasefire in Ukraine by Putin and Xi would be “unacceptable.”
“All that’s going to do is ratify Russia’s conquests to date,” Kirby said in televised comments. “All that’s going to do is give Mr. Putin more time to refit, retrain, remain, and try to plan for renewed offensives at a time of his choosing.”
U.S. officials, along with their counterparts in Kyiv, have ruled out any negotiations until Russian forces entirely withdraw from what they see as occupied Ukrainian territory.
This includes the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions, which Moscow effectively annexed last September, and the Black Sea region of Crimea, which since 2014 Moscow has viewed as Russian Federation territory.
Last year, high-level peace talks were held in Istanbul between Russian and Ukrainian officials. At one point, the talks appeared to be making progress, with both sides reportedly willing to make concessions.
Negotiations were scuttled, however, following Ukrainian claims that Russian forces had killed civilians in the town of Bucha near Kyiv. The United States and its NATO allies backed Kyiv’s claims, while Moscow insists they were fabricated.