Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Beijing on Tuesday for a visit that underscores China's support for Moscow during its war in Ukraine as well as Russian backing for China's bid to expand its economic and diplomatic influence abroad.
The two countries have forged an informal alliance against the United States and other democratic nations that is now complicated by the Israel-Hamas war. China has sought to balance its ties with Israel against its relations with Iran and Syria, two countries that are strongly backed by Russia and with which China has forged ties for economic reasons as well as to challenge Washington's influence in the Middle East.
Putin's plane was met by an honour guard as the Russian leader began his visit that is also a show of support for Chinese leader Xi Jinping's signature "Belt and Road" initiative to build infrastructure and expand China's overseas influence.
In an interview to Chinese state media, Putin praised the massive but loosely linked BRI projects.
"Yes, we see that some people consider it an attempt by the People's Republic of China to put someone under its thumb, but we see otherwise. We just see a desire for cooperation," he told state broadcaster CCTV, according to a transcript released by the Kremlin on Monday.
Putin will be among the highest-profile guests at a gathering marking the 10th anniversary of Xi's announcement of the BRI project, which has laden countries such as Zambia and Sri Lanka with heavy debt from contracts with Chinese companies to build roads, airports and other public works they could not otherwise afford. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has praised the Chinese policy as bringing development to neglected areas.
The gathering has also given Putin an opportunity to meet with other global leaders who have criticized the Western approach to Russia's war against Ukraine.
Speaking at a meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whose country is a member of the European Union as well as NATO, Putin said the countries have maintained good ties despite recent tensions.
"It causes satisfaction that we have managed to preserve and develop relations with many European countries, including Hungary," Putin said at the start of the talks with Orban.
Orban, who has repeatedly criticized Western sanctions against Russia, noted that his country has remained eager to maintain ties with Russia.
"Hungary never wanted to confront Russia. Hungary always has been eager to expand contacts," Orban told Putin. Hungary has continued to pursue contacts with Russia in the nuclear power and gas energy fields despite EU sanctions.
Asked by reporters Friday about his visit, Putin said it would encompass talks on Belt and Road-related projects, which he said Moscow wants to link with efforts by an economic alliance of former Soviet Union nations mostly located in Central Asia to "achieve common development goals."
He also downplayed the impact of China's economic influence in a region that Russia has long considered its backyard and where it has worked to maintain political and military clout.
"We don't have any contradictions here, on the contrary, there is a certain synergy," Putin said.
Putin said he and Xi would also discuss growing economic ties between Moscow and Beijing in energy, high-tech and financial industries. China has also grown in importance as an export destination for Russia.
Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, said that from China's view, "Russia is a safe neighbour that is friendly, that is a source of cheap raw materials, that's a support for Chinese initiatives on the global stage and that's also a source of military technologies, some of those that China doesn't have."
"For Russia, China is its lifeline, economic lifeline in its brutal repression against Ukraine," Gabuev told The Associated Press.
"It's the major market for Russian commodities, it's a country that provides its currency and payment system to settle Russia's trade with the outside world -- with China itself, but also with many other countries, and is also the major source of sophisticated technological imports, including dual-use goods that go into the Russian military machine."
Gabuev said that while Moscow and Beijing will be unlikely to forge a full-fledged military alliance, their defence cooperation will grow.
"Both countries are self-sufficient in terms of security and they benefit from partnering, but neither really requires a security guarantee from the other. And they preach strategic autonomy," he said.
"There will be no military alliance, but there will be closer military cooperation, more interoperability, more cooperation on projecting force together, including in places like the Arctic and more joint effort to develop a missile defence that makes the U.S. nuclear planning and planning of the U.S. and its allies in Asia and in Europe more complicated," he added.
The Chinese and Soviets were Cold War rivals for influence among left-leaning states, but China and Russia have since partnered in the economic, military and diplomatic spheres.
Just weeks before Russia's invasion of Ukraine last February, Putin met with Xi in Beijing and the sides signed an agreement pledging a "no-limits" relationship. Beijing's attempts to present itself as a neutral peace broker in Russia's war on Ukraine have been widely dismissed by the international community.
Xi visited Moscow in March as part of a flurry of exchanges between the countries. China has condemned international sanctions imposed on Russia, but hasn't directly addressed an arrest warrant issued for Putin by the International Criminal Court on charges of alleged involvement in the abductions of thousands of children from Ukraine.
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Associated Press writer Jim Heintz in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed to this report.
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