Putin and Xi discussed deepening their strategic partnership as the war in Ukraine grinds on
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Russian President Vladimir Putin is seeking to deepen his strategic ties with Moscow and Beijing, while speaking with his “dear friend” Chinese President Xi Jinping in a video call.
Putin praised XI to provide plans to expand the “Integral Association and Strategic Cooperation” between Russia and China, strengthening a geopolitical alliance that 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 bonds on the foundation of friendship, mutual acceptance as true and mutual support, equality and benefit. These connections are self-sustaining, independent of internal political points and the existing global situation. “
Moscow and Beijing’s foreign policies play an important stabilising role in international affairs, Putin added.
The two autocrats have long sought to present the West as being in decline, as China continues to serve as America’s greatest economic threat and Putin’s war of attrition against Western-supplied Ukrainian forces grinds on.
As the war approaches for 3 years and a new era dawns with Donald Trump by entering the White House, Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has suggested European leaders who identify themselves as hard global players.
“All European countries must be willing to spend as much on security as is truly needed, not just as much as they have gotten used to during years of neglect,” he told world leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Tuesday. “If it takes 5 per cent of GDP to cover defense then so be it, 5 percent it is.”
Defense expenses are not necessarily offset to the detriment of physical care or pensions, he added, believing that “it is not fair. “
In the speech, which received very cheerful applause, Zelensky also warned that Putin will return to Europe with an army ten times larger than the one that invaded Ukraine in 2022, if a long-term diplomatic solution does not have “solid security guarantees”. “.
Kiev has greater regularity in its long-range movements against Russia as it seeks the army’s energy infrastructure and 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.
Voronezh’s Liskinskaya oil depot hit the moment past the week, after a Ukrainian strike on January 16 knocked out fuel and lubricant tanks and started a smokestack at the facility heading through Rosneft, kyiv general staff said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry says it intercepted 55 Ukrainian drones in a large-scale night strike on Tuesday, 10 drones over the Smolensk region and six over the Voronezh region. Ukraine says it shot down 72 of 131 drones fired across Russia overnight.
Meanwhile, a top German official warned on Monday that Russia is rearming faster than had previously been thought – and that it could be preparing to attack a Nato country.
“The Russian armed forces must not only compensate for massive losses of workers and equipment, but in practice they are refinancing,” Maj. Gen. Freuding said in Germany.
Even though Putin isn’t necessarily making plans to attack a NATO state, Gen. Freuding said he’s “clearly creating the situations for that. “The head of Germany’s Army Task Force in Ukraine noted that production and materials are expanding in Russia, with Iran and North Korea helping to fill its arsen with widely used missiles, drones and tanks.
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