Xi and Putin unite to criticise US, but fail to clinch big gas deal
China and Russia's Strategic Summit: Key Outcomes and Challenges
By Liz Lee and Ethan Wang
Condemnation of US Policies
BEIJING, May 20 (Reuters) - China and Russia condemned U.S. President Donald Trump's Golden Dome missile defence shield plans and Washington's "irresponsible" nuclear policy at a summit on Wednesday, a week after President Xi Jinping hosted Trump in Beijing.
A joint statement issued after Xi's summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin served to underline that, while the Chinese leader seeks stable and constructive relations with Trump, he differs fundamentally with him on key issues where China's position is closely aligned with Russia's.
The statement said Trump's plan for a ground- and space-based missile interceptor system threatened global strategic stability and criticised Washington for allowing a treaty restricting the U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals to expire.
The treaty lapsed in February and Trump did not respond to Moscow's proposal to extend its missile and warhead limits by a year - something that some U.S. politicians argued would have hindered the U.S. from responding to a nuclear build-up by China.
Energy Relations and Elusive Gas Deal
Yet while speaking in unison on global security issues, the two leaders failed to reach a breakthrough that Moscow has long been seeking - a contract for a new pipeline that would enable it to more than double the amount of natural gas it sells to China.
Xi's Back-to-Back Summits
XI'S BACK-TO-BACK SUMMITS
Xi was wrapping up a remarkable week of diplomacy in which he met the leaders of China's most powerful strategic rival and one of its closest partners.
With Trump seeking an exit from a war with Iran and Putin's forces largely bogged down in Ukraine, the summits provided China's leader with a chance to showcase Beijing as a pillar of global stability and an indispensable diplomatic player.
"Xi does appear to hold the stronger position relative to both Putin and Trump. Both leaders are grappling with conflicts of their own making that have proven far more difficult to resolve than initially anticipated," said Patricia Kim, a foreign policy fellow at the Washington-based Brookings Institution.
"Xi, meanwhile, has been able to focus more squarely on strengthening China internally while projecting an image of a stable and confident great power on the global stage."
While the summit with Trump was largely about managing tensions, the encounter with Putin posed a different challenge - how to demonstrate progress in a relationship that the two sides have already proclaimed is "without limits".
Xi and Putin, who have met more than 40 times, both stressed the closeness of the Russia-China ties that they sealed in 2022 with the signing of a strategic partnership treaty, less than three weeks before Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Moscow had signalled ahead of the visit that it was seeking further energy agreements with China, the largest buyer of Russian oil, including pipeline supplies and sea-borne shipments.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said China was interested in long-term Russian oil supplies and increasing volumes, which he said were up 10% in four months.
Elusive Gas Deal
ELUSIVE GAS DEAL
During Putin's last visit in September 2025, Russian gas giant Gazprom said both sides had agreed to move forward with Power of Siberia 2, a prospective 2,600-km (1,616-mile) pipeline to carry 50 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas per year from Russia to China via Mongolia.
China has said very little publicly about the project. While Xi said on Wednesday that cooperation in energy and resource connectivity should be the "ballast stone" in China-Russia relations, he did not mention the pipeline.
Key issues such as gas pricing remain unresolved, and analysts expect negotiations could take years.
The Kremlin said both sides had reached a "general understanding on the parameters" of the project, although no details or clear timeline were agreed. Novak said Russia and China were finalising contracts for supplies via the pipeline.
"The core disagreements on pricing, financing and contract terms do not appear to have been resolved," said Daniel Sleat, senior policy advisor at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change.
"Russia needs this deal more urgently than China does after losing much of its European gas market, while Beijing still appears content to move slowly and preserve flexibility over future energy supply options."
Ceremonial Diplomacy and Broader Cooperation
HONOUR GUARD AND GUN SALUTE
Xi welcomed Putin with an honour guard and a gun salute at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, as children waved Chinese and Russian flags. They later dined on Peking duck and Jinhua cured ham at a banquet, and drank tea together with a small number of close aides, before Putin's plane departed.
Xi said the countries should focus on long-term strategy and promote a "more just and reasonable" global governance system, according to Chinese state news agency Xinhua.
"China-Russia relations have reached this level because we have been able to deepen political mutual trust and strategic cooperation," Xi said.
Putin said Russian-Chinese ties had "reached a truly unprecedented level and continue to develop".
Joint Declaration and Global Criticism
In their joint declaration, the two sides outlined plans for further cooperation across a vast range of areas, from artificial intelligence to protecting rare tigers, leopards and pandas.
They accused the United States and Israel of violating international law by attacking Iran, and expressed their "resolute opposition to hegemonism and unilateralism".
"The global agenda of peace and development is facing new risks and challenges, with the danger of fragmentation of the international community and a drift back towards the 'law of the jungle'," the joint declaration said, according to the Kremlin.
(Reporting by Liz Lee and Ethan Wang in Beijing, Jekaterina Golubkova in Tokyo; Additio
