“The East is a subtle matter”, says a well-known Russian expression that means how difficult it is to understand. Moscow and the whole world are checking the truth of these words with China and its ambiguous position in the midst of the conflict in Ukraine. While he allows himself to be courted by Moscow, to which he offered yesterday to further strengthen their relations, he evokes a peace plan for the war in Europe. The messenger of this inscrutable position is Wang Yi, Beijing’s top diplomat, who visited Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin yesterday.
The senior official, a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, assured Putin that Beijing is willing to deepen its relationship with Moscow. A time of crisis, he noted, requires Russia and China to “continually deepen their strategic cooperation,” Wang Yi assured the Russian leader in the opening moments of the meeting, broadcast on Russian state television.
He added, without referring directly to the United States, that these relations cannot be subject to pressure from third parties. “They are rock solid,” he noted. Wang arrived in Moscow days after the US accused China of planning to deliver weapons to Russia for use in Ukraine.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken raised concerns about these alleged plans several times this past weekend in the German city of Munich. This matter becomes another point of friction between China and the US, which is added to the usual one in Taiwan or to the periodic accusations of espionage, with the latest dispute in the balloons.
Beijing has responded angrily again, warning Washington to stay out of its relationship with Moscow. In the Chinese capital, Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin on Monday denied the accusations and responded that Washington “is not in a position to make demands on China.”
A year ago, when he received Putin in Beijing 20 days before the conflict in Ukraine began, the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, assured that the relationship between Russia and China “had no limits”. Beyond the rhetoric, the truth is that both coincide in their confrontation with the US.
Moscow blames Washington and the NATO that it leads for the conflict in Ukraine. The latest clash has occurred in the nuclear field. Putin announced on Tuesday that Russia suspends – although it does not abandon – its participation in Start III or New Start, the last nuclear disarmament treaty still in force between Russia and the US. Yesterday the two houses of Parliament, the Duma and the Council of the Federation (Senate), unanimously approved this decision.
The Russian president commented to Wang Yi that “international relations are complicated today.” But in this context, “China-Russia cooperation is of great importance for the stabilization of the international situation,” he said.
Before meeting Putin, Wang met with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow. At that meeting, Wang noted that regardless of “changes in the world situation,” Beijing maintains its position of “applying efforts together with Russia for the development of positive trends in relations between the great powers.”
He also pointed out that China is committed to moving towards a multipolar world, which for Russia means a world without the hegemony of the United States. “We have always been in favor of multipolarity and against unilateral and hegemonic actions,” said the Chinese diplomat.
But Wang Yi has been traveling in Europe for a week, where he has stressed that China is committed to peace and a political solution in Ukraine.
In this ambiguous position, on the one hand he has called for respect for “the territorial integrity of all countries”, including Ukraine, and on the other, that attention be paid to “the legitimate concerns of all countries, in reference to Russia and its desire for NATO to move away from its borders.
The main Chinese diplomat participated last week in the Munich Security Conference, and there he reiterated a call for dialogue. “No matter how difficult the situation is, we cannot stop looking for peace,” he said.
In the German city, he met with the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Dimitró Kuleba, to whom he reiterated that Beijing “has always been on the side of peace and dialogue.” Before traveling to Moscow on Monday he visited Budapest, where he met with Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó and repeated a similar message.
Wang Yi is supposed to have arrived in Europe with a proposal for a solution to the Ukraine conflict under his arm. Nothing concrete is known about it yet, although European officials quoted by the Bloomberg agency hope that it will include a call for a ceasefire and another to stop supplying weapons to Ukraine. Beijing could make it public sometime this week, a year after Vladimir Putin sent his army against his neighboring country.
Presumably Wang presented this plan to Putin, as after the meeting Moscow praised the Chinese effort. “We welcome China’s willingness to play a positive role in resolving the Ukraine crisis,” said Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry.
After receiving the Chinese messenger, Putin continued his journey with a totally patriotic rally-concert. More than 200,000 people, according to the police, filled the Olympic stadium in Luzhniki, which has a capacity for 81,000 spectators. Apart from performances by popular Russian artists, with messages of support for the military campaign in Ukraine, the stars of the event were Putin and the Russian fighters in Ukraine, naming Defenders of the Fatherland Glory.
From the stage, the Kremlin chief praised the Russian soldiers. “They fight heroically, bravely. We are proud of them. Today the whole country supports them, ”he assured. “When we are together, no one can match us. For the unity of the Russian people!” he shouted, microphone in hand and bundled up for the cold Russian winter.
It is the second time since the conflict in Ukraine began that Putin has taken such a mass bath. The first was also in Luzhniki, on March 18, 2022, to celebrate the anniversary of the annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014, considered illegal by Ukraine and widely condemned by the Western community.