Russia seeks to reassert its territorial claims to China after President Trump and President Xi meet

Russian officials appeared keen to reaffirm the Russia-China alliance on Monday following a high-profile meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Following last week’s meeting with President Xi Jinping, which President Trump described as “excellent,” Russia sent a large delegation to China for consensus-building and consultations.

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin arrived in Hangzhou on Monday and held two days of talks with Chinese Premier Li Qiang, where officials signed various agreements to deepen cooperation in the areas of trade, investment, energy, transport, agriculture and space, Russian state media reported.

Mishustin called the Chinese side “dear friends” and said in comments carried by Russian state news agency Ria Novosti that relations between Russia and China “are at the highest level in their centuries-long history and continue to develop dynamically in all fields, despite various obstacles and illegal Western sanctions.”

Li Qiang did not specify what he was referring to, but said the Chinese government was ready to strengthen cooperation with Russia despite the obstacles.

“Despite new external risks and challenges in this process, China and Russia always strive to support each other, build strategic contacts and exchanges, and jointly overcome difficulties,” he said, as reported by TASS news agency. He added that the partnership “shows that China and Russia are good neighbors and reliable partners who can always rely on each other.”

China is Russia’s most important and strongest international ally, and Beijing has refused to condemn Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine and the ongoing war, echoing Russian rhetoric by calling the war a “crisis.”

Shortly before the invasion of Ukraine, Putin and Xi signed an “unrestricted” partnership, with Russia seeking to leverage that alliance both in terms of geopolitical support and trade partnerships to reduce the impact of Western sanctions that have shrunk its energy export market.

Ahead of this week’s trip, the Kremlin said it attaches “very” importance to the talks and would ensure that was reflected in the delegation to Asia, including Mr. Mishustin’s deputy and a range of senior officials, including the finance, agriculture, transport, economic development and trade ministers.

Space and nuclear energy stakeholders also accompanied the delegation, as did the Director General of Roscosmos and the head of Rosatom.

The Russian officials’ two-day visit to China comes days after President Trump held a high-profile meeting with Chinese President Xi last week, during which the two leaders said they had reached “agreement on a number of issues.” Meanwhile, Mr. Xi said China and the United States should be “partners and friends.”

In what was widely seen as a “trade truce” after months of escalating tariff and anti-tariff tensions, President Trump said he had reached a one-year agreement with China on rare earth supplies and cut fentanyl-related tariffs on China in half, lowering overall tariffs on Chinese goods to 47%.

The Russian government has not commented publicly on the talks, likely uncomfortable seeing its longtime ally China holding seemingly constructive (and restorative) talks with the United States, with which relations have sharply deteriorated in recent weeks.

President Trump canceled a scheduled face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying he did not want to have “wasteful talks,” indicating his dissatisfaction with the Russian government over the lack of movement regarding the Ukraine war.

President Trump added that the reason the summit was canceled was because “every time I talk to Mr. Vladimir, we have fun conversations, but we just can’t get anything done.”

Russia expressed displeasure at the cancellation, with senior Russian officials blaming Western media and “fake news” for the cancellation.