China-Russia relations were at the forefront Wednesday as Chinese and Russian leaders met in Beijing for the first time since Ukraine’s invasion.
Russian President Vladimir Putin traveled to Beijing, China this week to meet with his closest ally on the world stage, Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“Mutual political trust between the two countries is constantly deepening,” Xi said, according to state media Xinhua.
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This swimming pool photograph distributed by Russian state agency Sputnik shows Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping posing during a meeting in Beijing. (SERGEI GUNEYEV/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Putin was the guest of honor at Xi’s celebratory summit on the Belt and Road Initiative, a transcontinental infrastructure plan aimed at boosting the communist nation’s trade.
Xi continued to praise Putin, saying the two men “developed good working relations and deep friendship” during their long careers.
Putin stressed the importance of “close foreign policy coordination” in “the current difficult conditions,” according to translations by the Moscow Times.
“And we are doing it, and today we will discuss it,” Putin said.
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(Front row, left to right) Indonesian President Joko Widodo, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev with other leaders greet during a group photo during the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. (SUO TAKEKUMA/PISCINE/AFP via Getty Images)
The two world leaders have met approximately 42 times in recent decades.
This is the first time Putin has visited a major world power since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began.
It is also the first time the two world leaders have met since the outbreak of violence between Israel and Hamas this month.
Putin called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, offering help to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe while sharing information on recent calls with regional leaders.
This swimming pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik shows Russian President Vladimir Putin (6 right), Chinese President Xi Jinping (4 left) and members of the two delegations meeting in Beijing. (SERGEI GUNEYEV/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
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During the call, Putin offered condolences for the sheer number of deaths, with more than 1,300 Israelis dying on October 7 when Hamas-led terrorists flooded into the country in a brutal attack on Israel.
China has been hesitant to take sides following the Terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas on Israel.
Israeli officials complained from the start of the conflict that China had offered “no clear and unequivocal condemnation of the terrible massacre committed by the terrorist organization Hamas against innocent civilians and the kidnapping of dozens of them in Gaza.”