Personal ties that bind: How Xi-Putin relationship has evolved – By Erin Hale (Al Jazeera) / March 18, 2022
The warm relationship between leaders of China and Russia is unlikely to differ much in short term, even if Beijing distances itself from the Ukraine invasion.
It was only six weeks ago that Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, met shortly before the start of the Beijing Winter Olympics and released a sweeping 5,000-word statement that reaffirmed their no-limits relationship.
As Moscow massed tens of thousands of soldiers on the border of Ukraine, together the pair in their 38th in-person meeting in nine years disavowed NATO, the United States-European military alliance forged in the Cold War and now grappling with a resurgent Russia.
And on February 24, Russia did what many thought was unthinkable by invading neighbouring Ukraine.
Whether Putin told Xi about the planned invasion is not known, but US officials say Russia has asked China for economic and military aid as it faces unprecedented sanctions from Western countries and their allies, a mass corporate exodus and an unexpectedly resistant Ukraine.
