Putin speaks to Xi, calls for deepening military cooperation with China

Russian President Vladimir Putin has told his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping that Moscow is keen to ramp up its military cooperation with Beijing as part of joint efforts to counter Western interventions in the region.

“We aim to strengthen cooperation between the armed forces of Russia and China,” Putin told Xi through a video link on Friday in their end-of-year video call, hailing efforts of Moscow and Beijing to counter “unprecedented Western pressure and provocations.”

Putin said the ties between the two countries are “the best in history” and also invited Xi for a state visit to Moscow in the spring.

For his part, the Chinese leader expressed Beijing’s readiness to boost its strategic cooperation with Moscow against the backdrop of what he called a “difficult” situation in the world at large.

China stood ready to expand the “strategic partnership”, Xi was quoted as saying in the statement.

The duo that met in September in Uzbekistan started the year with a joint declaration of a “no limits” partnership at a February summit on the eve of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, as both sought to challenge the US power and push for a multipolar world.

Since Russia launched its military campaign in Ukraine in early February, China has accused the US of provoking Russia by expanding the outreach of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) military alliance.

Last week, Putin ordered his country’s defense industry chiefs and weapons producers to accelerate their production to ensure that the Russian army quickly got all the weapons, equipment, and military hardware it needed to fight in Ukraine.