China’s New Leader, Visiting Russia, Promotes Nations’ Economic and Military Ties
By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN and CHRIS BUCKLEY
MOSCOW — President Xi Jinping of China arrived here on Friday for his first trip abroad as his country’s top leader, using talks with his counterpart, Vladimir V. Putin, to promote deeper cooperation with Russia while the United States has been shoring up ties with its own allies across the Asia-Pacific
Connect With Us on Twitter
Follow @nytimesworld for international breaking news and headlines.
Despite a history of unease between the two neighbors, which share a
2,600-mile border, China and Russia have found increasing camaraderie in
recent years, forming a bulwark against what each country, for its own
reasons, often views as the liberal political juggernaut of the West.
And Mr. Xi’s visit to the Kremlin, just eight days after his installation as president,
sent a clear message that China can turn to its own sources of support,
to partially counterbalance the United States when necessary.
“China will make developing relations with Russia a priority in its
foreign policy orientation,” he said in a written statement issued upon
his arrival in Moscow, the Chinese state-owned news agency Xinhua
reported.
The Russian government rolled out a red carpet, and state television
broadcast the arrival live as Mr. Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, were
greeted at the airport by an honor guard. They waved and posed briefly
for the cameras before being whisked downtown for the start of a busy
two-day itinerary that includes meetings with Mr. Putin and other top
officials and a visit to a Moscow university.
But the trip was also intended to be more than symbolic, with plans for
the signing of a deal with Rosneft, Russia’s state-owned oil company, worth up to $30 billion.
In their talks, Mr. Xi told Mr. Putin that the two governments should
“resolutely support each other in efforts to protect national
sovereignty, security and development interests,” Xinhua reported.
For months, China has been engaged in a bitter dispute with Japan over
islands in the East China Sea claimed by both countries, and Russia has
been among China’s strongest diplomatic supporters in the quarrel.
Mr. Xi’s reported comments did not mention Syria, Iran, North Korea or
other international flash points over which China and Russia have
sometimes joined forces in the United Nations Security Council
to resist Western pressure for a firmer response. Mr. Xi said they
would “closely coordinate in international regional affairs, protecting
the shared strategic security of the two countries,” Xinhua reported.
Mr. Putin thanked Mr. Xi for choosing Russia for his first trip abroad.
Mr. Xi in turn talked about Russia and China as good friends who treat
each other “with open souls.”
Mr. Putin, in an interview with the Itar-Tass news agency timed to
coincide with Mr. Xi’s arrival, stressed the countries’ shared role on
the Security Council.
“That is why the strategic partnership between us is of great importance
on both a bilateral and global scale,” said Mr. Putin, adding that
Russia-China relations were “the best in their centuries-long history.”
“They are characterized by a high degree of mutual trust, respect for
each other’s interests, support in vital issues,” he said. “They are a
true partnership.”
Since returning to the presidency in May, Mr. Putin has distanced Russia
from the West while putting a new focus on Asia, particularly relations
with China — a point he stressed when Russia played host to the
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit meeting in Vladivostok in
September.
Mr. Putin and Mr. Xi are headed to South Africa for the fifth summit
meeting of the so-called Brics bloc of emerging economies — Brazil,
Russia, India, China and South Africa.
Mr. Xi, who was appointed China’s president last week, concluding a
leadership transition begun when he became Communist Party chief in
November, sought to distinguish himself from his immediate predecessor,
Hu Jintao. But on domestic issues, he has continued Mr. Hu’s wooing of
Russia for diplomatic support and energy supplies. Russia was also Mr.
Hu’s his first foreign destination after he was appointed president, in
2003.
“The fact that I will visit Russia, our friendly neighbor, shortly after
assuming presidency is a testimony to the great importance China places
on its relations with Russia,” Mr. Xi told a small group of invited
journalists at a briefing on Tuesday in Beijing. “The two sides have had
closer strategic coordination on the world stage.”
Recently, both governments expressed misgivings that the United States,
in response to threats from North Korea, plans to deploy 14 new missile
interceptors in Alaska, where 26 of the existing 30 are already in
place,.
A joint declaration issued by Mr. Putin and Mr. Xi after their talks
repeated those qualms, without singling out the United States by name.
It said that their governments “oppose a country or a bloc of countries
unilaterally and without limit strengthening antimissile capabilities,
harming strategic stability and international security.”
The deal said to be in the works with Rosneft would potentially entail a
loan of $30 billion from China, to be repaid in oil. A similar loan in
2005 for $6 billion helped finance Rosneft’s purchase of a subsidiary of
Yukos, once Russia’s largest oil company. Western critics said that
deal made China complicit in the Russian government’s takeover of Yukos.
In 2009, another loan, of $25 billion split between Rosneft and
Transneft, the state-controlled pipeline company, is to be repaid with
about 2.5 billion barrels of oil through 2030.
The agreements signed by the two presidents included promises of
cooperation on numerous fronts, among them travel and tourism,
agriculture, education, scientific research and banking. The greatest
focus was on energy development, not only the oil deal with Rosneft,
which will sharply increase the amount of oil supplied to China by
Russia, but also an agreement to move forward with a deal on natural gas, something the two countries have been struggling to negotiate for years.
Despite the increasing ties on energy and other issues, and the recent
displays of good will, experts say the relationship is still burdened by
Russian wariness and Chinese frustrations.
Some Russians worry that China’s growing economic and military strength
could eventually displace their country’s influence, especially in the
sparsely settled regions of the Russian Far East.
China has long sought to draw Russia’s Gazprom into agreeing to supply
natural gas along a proposed pipeline from east Siberia.
“Pipeline oil and gas cooperation is a good thing that benefits both
sides,” the Chinese vice foreign minister, Cheng Guoping, told reporters
in Beijing this week. “It suits both sides’ energy security needs and
national interests.”
But longstanding disagreements over pricing have frustrated the proposed
gas deal, and Mr. Putin’s spokesman said on Thursday that an agreement
was unlikely during Mr. Xi’s visit.
For the Chinese leader, the visit appears to be as much about
consolidating his stature at home and abroad as about bilateral ties.
The domestic fame of Mr. Xi’s wife, a professional singer, once
overshadowed his own, and popular Chinese newspapers and Web sites have
dwelled as much on her planned activities as on his.
Like Mr. Hu, Mr. Xi describes himself as an admirer of Russian culture.
During his news briefing this week, he reeled off the names of Russian
authors whose works he said he had read as a youth, including Pushkin,
Tolstoy and Chekhov, and he praised Mr. Putin, whom he has met before.
“We found a lot in common during our talks,” Mr. Xi said.
No comments:
Post a Comment