Forget the bestie act, Xi and Putin have different aims

Not quite on the same page: President Xi of China and Russia’s Vladimir Putin

- Robert Fox

 

RELATIONS between China and Russia “are at their highest point in history”, according to the communique from their two presidents in Moscow yesterday. But the rictus smiles of Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping seemed to tell a different story.

Though they strove to appear on the same page, the strategies are moving on very different tracks. To make the point, the briefing at the end of the twoday state visit of China’s president to Moscow stressed the countries “are not in a military political alliance.”