Putin, Xi hold talks amid Ukraine and Taiwan tensions while expressing their “negative view” of new military blocs AUKUS and the “Quad” created by the US and its allies.

China has supported Russia in its push to get Western security guarantees precluding NATO’s eastward expansion, the Kremlin has said.

During Wednesday’s talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping said he “understands Russia’s concerns and fully supports our initiative to work out these security guarantees for Russia,” Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, said.

Both leaders spoke in a virtual meeting as Moscow faces heightened tensions with the West over a Russian troop buildup near Ukraine’s border.

Putin told Xi about “mounting threats to Russia’s national interests from the US and the NATO bloc, which consistently move their military infrastructure close to the Russian borders,” Ushakov, said.

He said the pair also expressed their “negative view” of the creation of new military alliances such as the AUKUS partnership between Australia, Britain and the United States and the Asia-Pacific “Quad” of Australia, India, Japan and the United States.

In recent weeks, Western nations have mounted diplomatic pressure to prevent a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Russia denies harbouring plans to storm its neighbour and seeks guarantees that NATO will not expand to Ukraine or deploy troops and weapons there.

On Wednesday, Moscow passed its proposals to US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Karen Donfried, who visited the Russian capital and met with Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov.

💬 President Vladimir #Putin during talks with President Xi Jinping:

🇷🇺🇨🇳 A new model of cooperation has developed between our countries based, in part, on the principle of mutual resolve to turn our common border into a belt of eternal peace.

🔗 https://t.co/ONoOdoDjOU pic.twitter.com/2ub03kT6ZN

— MFA Russia 🇷🇺 (@mfa_russia) December 15, 2021

China-Russia alliance 

In recent years, China and Russia have increasingly aligned their foreign policies to counter US domination of the international economic and political order.

Both have faced sanctions — China over an alleged crackdown on minorities, especially Muslims in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, and for its crackdown on the anti-Beijing movement in Hong Kong, and Russia for annexing Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and over the poisoning and imprisonment of opposition leader Alexey Navalny.

Beijing and Washington also remain at odds over trade, technology and Taiwan.

Russia’s relations with the US sank to post-Cold War lows after it annexed Crimea and threw its weight behind a separatist insurgency in Ukraine’s east.

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China calls for ‘joint actions’ over security 

During their call, Putin and Xi hailed relations between Russia and China, with the Russian leader saying they are based on “such principles as not interfering in internal affairs (of each other), respect for each other’s interests, determination to turn the shared border into a belt of eternal peace and good neighbourliness.”

Xi said, through a translator, that he appreciated that Putin “strongly supported China’s efforts to protect key national interests and firmly opposed attempts to drive a wedge between our countries.”

Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported that Xi said “both China and Russia need to carry out more joint actions to more effectively safeguard our security and interests.”

“At present, certain international forces are arbitrarily interfering in the internal affairs of China and Russia under the guise of democracy and human rights, and brutally trampling on international law and the norms of international relations,” Xi was quoted by CCTV as saying.

Putin said he plans to meet with Xi in person in Beijing in February and to attend the 2022 Winter Olympics. The US and some of its allies have announced a diplomatic boycott of the event.

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