Putin and XI deepen their strategic association as war continues in Ukraine.
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Russian president Vladimir Putin has called on Moscow and Beijing to deepen their strategic ties, as he spoke with “dear friend” Chinese president Xi Jinping on a video call.
Putin waved at Mr Xi over the call as he proposed outlining plans to develop the “comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation” between Russia and China, strengthening a geopolitical alliance which seeks to weaken western hegemony.
In a video released by the Kremlin of the conversation, Putin said: “I agree with you that cooperation between Moscow and Beijing is based on a broad commonality of national interests and a convergence of views on what relations between major powers should be.
“We build our ties on the basis of friendship, mutual acceptance and support, equality and mutual benefit. These connections are self-sufficient, independent of internal political points and the existing global situation. “
Putin added that foreign policies in Moscow and Beijing play a stabilizing role in foreign affairs.
Both autocrats have long tried to portray the West as a country in decline, while China continues to pose the biggest economic risk to the United States and Putin’s war of attrition against Western-supplied Ukrainian forces continues.
With the war approaching the three-year mark and a new era beginning as Donald Trump enters the White House, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky urged European leaders to establish themselves as strong global players.
“All European countries will have to be willing to spend on security as much as they need, and not as much as they have become accustomed throughout the years of negligence,” world leaders told the World Economic Forum in Davos on Tuesday. “If five percent of GDP are needed to cover the defense, so it is, it is five percent. “
Defense expenses are not offset to the detriment of physical care or pensions, he added, saying it was “not alone. “
In the speech, for which he received rapturous applause, Mr Zelensky also warned that Putin will return to Europe with an army 10 times the size of that which invaded Ukraine in 2022, if a future diplomatic solution does not have “strong security guarantees”.
Kyiv has increased the regularity of its long-range strikes into Russia as it looks to damage energy infrastructure and military facilities.
Ukrainian forces struck a Russian aviation factory in the Smolensk region and an oil depot in the Voronezh region on Tuesday, according to Ukraine’s military.
The Liskinskayayayaya oil deposit of Voronezh hit for a moment last week, after a Ukrainian strike on January 16 hit the fuel and lubricant tanks and began the fireplace in the installation led through Rosneft, said the general staff of the general personnel of Kyiv.
The Russian Defense Ministry said it intercepted 55 Ukrainian drones in a large -scale night attack on Tuesday, 10 on the Smolensk region and six over the Voronezh region. Ukraine claims to have demolished 72 of the 131 drones fired through Russia during the night.
Meanwhile, a senior German official warned Monday that Russia will rearm faster than we previously thought and could prepare to attack a NATO country.
“The Russian armed forces are not only to compensate for the massive losses of workers and teams, but are effectively paying,” said Freuding Major gene in Germany.
Although Putin is not necessarily planning an attack on any Nato state, Gen Freuding said he is “clearly creating the conditions for it”. The head of Germany’s military task force in Ukraine noted that production and supplies are growing in Russia, with Iran and North Korea helping to replenish its heavily-used stockpile of missiles, drones and tanks.
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