China, Russia should safeguard security, development interests, says Xi
The two countries should join efforts to build a more "equitable" international order, said Chinese President Xi Jinping.
This handout photograph released by the Russian Foreign Ministry shows China's leader Xi Jinping attending a meeting of the foreign ministers of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Beijing on Jul 15, 2025. (File photo: Handout via AFP/Russian Foreign Ministry)
BEIJING: China and Russia should jointly safeguard their security and development interests, Chinese President Xi Jinping told the visiting Russian parliament speaker on Tuesday (Aug 26), in their efforts to build a more "equitable" international order.
The two sides should continue their traditional friendship and deepen strategic mutual trust, state-run Xinhua news agency quoted Xi as saying.
US President Donald Trump said earlier this week that he might impose "massive" sanctions on Russia in two weeks depending on whether progress was possible in his bid to end Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Trump held a summit with President Vladimir Putin in Alaska earlier this month, but has been unable to coax him into a meeting with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
On Monday, Trump said China had to give the United States rare earth magnets or "we have to charge them 200% tariff or something".
Vyacheslav Volodin, chairman of Russia's lower house of parliament the State Duma, arrived in China on Monday ahead of Putin's visit to China this weekend, where he will cross paths with tens of Global South world leaders, including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at a security forum.
Indian exporters are bracing for additional 25 per cent US tariffs from Wednesday as punishment for New Delhi's purchases of Russian oil.
Russia and China should "unite" the countries in the Global South, Xi told Volodin, a key domestic ally of Putin's.
Putin will also be the principal foreign guest of honour at a military parade in Beijing next week marking the formal surrender of Japan and the end of World War II.
Ahead of what is set to be a massive public showcase of China's modernising armed forces, Beijing has mounted a campaign saying China and the former Soviet Union played a pivotal role in the Asian and European theatres during World War II.
China-Russia relations serve as a "source of stability for world peace", said Xi.
