Chinese President Xi Jinping supported Russian President Vladimir Putin in his push to get Western security guarantees precluding
NATO’s eastward expansion, the Kremlin said Wednesday after the two leaders held a virtual summit.
Putin and Xi spoke as Moscow faces heightened tensions with the West over a Russian troop buildup near Ukraine’s border. In recent weeks, Western nations engaged in diplomatic efforts to prevent a possible invasion of Ukraine. The Kremlin has denied harboring plans to storm its neighbour.
Putin, meanwhile, demanded guarantees that NATO will not expand to Ukraine or deploy troops and weapons there.
He told Xi on Wednesday about “mounting threats to Russia’s national interests from the US and the NATO bloc, which consistently move their military infrastructure close to the Russian borders,” Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, said.
The Russian leader stressed the need to hold talks with NATO and the US on legally binding security guarantees, according to Ushakov. Xi responded by saying he
“understands Russia’s concerns and fully supports our initiative to work out these security guarantees for Russia,” Ushakov said.
He said Moscow’s proposals have been passed on
to US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Karen Donfried, who visited Moscow on Wednesday and met with Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov.
In recent years, China and Russia have increasingly aligned their foreign policies to counter U.S. domination of the international economic and political order.