The Russian Invasion|The Role of China

Xi in place in Moscow. AP 

The Russian Invasion|The Role of China

Chinese President Xi Jinping has landed in Moscow  

 

Chinese President Xi Jinping has landed in the Russian capital Moscow to meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, AFP reports, referring to Russian state media. 

 

Xi Jinping is said to have arrived in a "special plane" on Monday afternoon, Russian time. With his visit, the Chinese president becomes the first world leader to meet Putin since the International Criminal Court ICC in The Hague issued an arrest warrant against him at the end of last week.  

 

Putin and Xi are expected to discuss, among other things, the twelve-step program developed by China to end the war in Ukraine. 

 

A program that has received sharp criticism from several Western countries. According to AP, Xi Jinping will be in Moscow for three days. 

Xi Jinping arrives in Moscow. AP 

Xi: Hope for renewed vigor in our relationship  

 

Xi Jinping hopes his three-day visit to Moscow will reinvigorate Russian-Chinese relations. This is what the Chinese leader said shortly after he landed in the Russian capital on Monday, Reuters reports, referring to the Russian state news agency Tass.  

 

Both China and Russia have previously described Xi's visit as an attempt to further deepen the countries' "borderless friendship". 

 

- I am convinced that the visit will be fruitful, Xi told journalists, according to AFP. 

 

Archive image. Alexei Druzhinin / AP 

 

Expert ahead of Xi's visit: "Balance of power on steroids" 

 

The balance of power between China and Russia is increasingly in China's favor, say experts ahead of Xi Jinping's visit to Vladimir Putin in Moscow today.  

 

- There was already a large power imbalance before the war. Now that Russia is isolated from the West, it's an imbalance on steroids, says Alexander Gabuev, Russia expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think tank, to The Guardian. 

 

The summit is an opportunity for both Xi and Putin to show that they have powerful allies as relations with the West sour, Joseph Torigian, an expert on Russian-Chinese relations at the American University in Washington, told the AP. 

 

- China may signal that they can do even more to support Russia, and that if the relationship with the United States deteriorates further, they can do much more to help Russia in the war against Ukraine.