Following accusations of war crimes by an international tribunal, Russian President Vladimir Putin will host Chinese President Xi Jinping in Moscow. This meeting comes just days after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Putin over the deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia since the beginning of the war.
Russia will use Xi’s visit as evidence that it has a powerful friend prepared to stand with it against the West, which it says is attempting to isolate and defeat Russia. While Russia’s army struggles in Ukraine, the US warns China against supplying Moscow with weapons, and Beijing faces a difficult choice.
It can either do nothing and risk seeing Russia humiliated, or it can come to Russia’s aid and risk a bigger deterioration in its relationship with the US and other Western countries.
Putin expressed optimism about Xi’s visit and their “no limits” strategic partnership in an article for a Chinese newspaper. He also appreciated China’s support and willingness to mediate in the Ukrainian conflict, acknowledging their balanced understanding of the situation and welcoming their constructive role in resolving the crisis.
In February, China published a 12-point paper calling for dialogue and a settlement in Ukraine, but it contained only general statements and no concrete proposal for how the year-long war might end. Ukraine welcomed the Chinese proposal but insisted that any settlement would require Russia to withdraw from all the territory it has seized, including the Crimean Peninsula it annexed in 2014.