China and Russia to close ranks in united front against American pressure following Xi Jinping’s meeting with Vladimir Putin

• Moscow and Beijing could be about to upgrade their relationship to something close to an alliance as both try to fend off pressure from the West, sources say.
• After meeting with Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin tells Tass that the two nations’ agreement on global issues is at ‘an unprecedentedly high level.
  

China and Russia have elevated their already close partnership to a new level, Chinese state media said, as Beijing and Moscow seek to offset pressure from the US.

The decision to upgrade bilateral ties to “comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination in new era” was announced by Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin following their summit in Moscow on Wednesday, state-owned Xinhua said in a brief report.

After the meeting at the Kremlin, Putin told reporters that he and Xi had discussed a wide range of global topics.“We confirmed that Russia’s and China’s stances on key global issues are similar or coincide, as diplomats say,” Putin was quoted by Russian news agency Tass as saying.

“We stated that they had reached a very high - and without any exaggeration - an unprecedentedly high level,” the Russian leader said.


The commitments came during Xi’s three-day visit to Russia to mark the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries. As well as the talks with Putin, a formal reception and a taking in a performance at the Bolshoi Theatre, Xi’s itinerary also includes a visit to St Petersburg for an international economic forum.

Prior to the two leaders’ summit, Xi told Putin that relations between China and Russia “have stood the test of time in the context of the changing situation in the world”, according to Tass. “Step by step, we have managed to bring our relations to a new level, the highest in history.