At the start of the first face-to-face meeting between the presidents of Russia and China since the Beijing Winter Olympics in February, Putin told Xi on Thursday that he understood Beijing had “questions and concerns” about Russia’s incursion into Ukraine, without specifying what it was. Chinese state media did not carry Putin’s cryptic comment at the meeting in Uzbekistan, where the leaders are participating in a regional security forum, and reported that Xi said only that the two countries would continue to work closely together and support each other for the defense of basic interests”, without specifically mentioning Ukraine. Officially, the Chinese government has echoed Russia’s insistence that the US-led NATO “intervention” in Europe was the real trigger for the war in Ukraine. Washington, Beijing adds, is therefore responsible for all the consequences of the conflict, from humanitarian tragedies to food and energy shortages and global inflation. During a recent visit to Russia, Li Zhanshu, the third-ranking official of the Chinese Communist Party and head of the National People’s Congress, harshly accused the US in a video released by his Russian counterparts but not broadcast by Chinese state media. . The divergent messages, however, do not reflect a major new rift in the decade-long partnership between Xi and Putin, analysts said. Russia was the first foreign country Xi visited since taking power in late 2012, and on Wednesday he referred to Putin as his “dear old friend.” Zhao Long, a Russia and Central Asia expert at the Shanghai Institutes of International Studies, said many people outside China “have misunderstandings about the so-called borderless Sino-Russian partnership.” “This is based on consensus on specific issues – it is not binding or open-ended in all areas,” Zhao said. “When a country handles its foreign relations, its first consideration is its own interests, which may lead to areas where bilateral relations need to be improved.” Putin also hinted at this realpolitik when he recently noted that “our Chinese friends are tough negotiators.” “Of course, they proceed from their national interests in any agreement, which is the only way,” he added. Alexander Gabuev, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said that even if Xi was worried by some of the consequences of the war in Ukraine, his options were limited. “If Putin is so obsessed with Ukraine, what can he do? [Xi] does it realistically?’ Gabuev said. “Cheap [Russian] merchandise and weapon designs are good for [Beijing] And the departure of the Putin regime and the unlikely prospect of a pro-Western government in Russia is a terrible nightmare for China.” The Samarkand summit was Xi’s 39th face-to-face meeting with Putin since he was appointed head of the Chinese Communist Party a decade ago. While they have celebrated birthdays together and refer to each other as “best friends,” Thursday’s meeting reflected some shifting dynamics. Putin’s unexpected remarks about Chinese concerns about Ukraine are “a sign of the changing balance of power in the relationship,” said Jakub Jakóbowski, senior fellow in the China program at the Center for Oriental Studies in Warsaw. Putin landed in Uzbekistan after a lightning counteroffensive by Ukrainian forces retook swaths of territory in the country’s northeast. “The summit comes at the worst possible time for Putin, in the immediate aftermath of catastrophic battlefield failures that have revealed, beyond doubt, the truth that Russia cannot win this war and no longer knows what its goals are.” , said Nigel Gould-Davies, senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a think tank in London. By comparison, for Xi’s domestic purposes, the summit with his Russian counterpart was a success, just weeks before the Chinese Communist Party congress at which he will secure an unprecedented third term in power. Putin also told Xi he blamed “the provocations of the United States and its satellites” for the recent crisis over Taiwan, which Xi threatened in August with a series of unprecedented military exercises after a visit by the US House speaker Nancy Pelosi in Taipei.

“Xi got what he needed for his domestic audience on the eve of the party congress: Moscow’s clear and repeated support for China’s Taiwan policy, along with US condemnation,” Jakóbowski said. But Russia and China have potentially conflicting interests in central Asia, where some former Soviet republics have been irritated by Putin’s adventurism in Ukraine and are developing closer economic ties with China. Xi traveled to Kazakhstan for the first time on Wednesday, his first visit to a foreign country since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in January 2020. Without specifically mentioning Russia, he told his Kazakh counterpart, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, that China will “resolutely support [Kazakhstan’s] independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity. . . and strongly oppose the interference of any powers in the internal affairs of your country.” “The war in Ukraine pulled Kazakhstan away from Russia,” said Lance Gore, an expert on China policy at the National University of Singapore’s East Asia Institute. “If Putin can do this in Ukraine, he can do it in Kazakhstan. This is a great wedge between Kazakhstan and Russia that will strengthen China’s position in central Asia.” Additional reporting by Xinning Liu and Maiqi Ding in Beijing Video: China, Russia and the war in Ukraine