Chinese President Xi Jinping welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing on Wednesday, hosting the Kremlin leader at a formal welcoming ceremony at the Great Hall of the People just days after U.S. President Donald Trump concluded his own state visit to China.
Putin’s visit comes only days after Trump’s own trip to Beijing. Experts say the sequence is cementing Beijing’s image as an influential superpower.
“The message is clearly one that China maintains friendship and strategic partnership with whichever power it likes, and the USA is just one of them,” said Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute at the University of London.
Following the welcoming ceremony, the two delegations held bilateral talks, with a signing of cooperation agreements expected to follow.
The leaders were also scheduled to meet again in the evening at a gala reception marking the 25th anniversary of the Sino-Russian Treaty of Friendship.
Putin described Russia-China relations as having reached a “truly unprecedented level” in remarks carried by Chinese state media ahead of the trip. On the economic front, the two sides signalled significant progress on energy cooperation.
Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov revealed that Russia’s oil exports to China grew by 35 percent in the first quarter of 2026, with Russia also emerging as one of China’s biggest natural gas suppliers.
Putin noted earlier this month that the two countries had made “a very substantial step forward” in oil and gas cooperation, and expressed hope that final details would be wrapped up during the Beijing visit.
The deepening economic ties come against a backdrop of sweeping Western sanctions on Moscow following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
China, which has declared neutrality in the conflict, has nonetheless become Russia’s top trading partner and its largest customer for energy exports.
Western governments have also accused Beijing of supplying high-tech components used in Russia’s weapons industry, accusations China has not acted on.
Putin was also quick to give his blessing to Xi’s diplomacy with Washington. “We stand only to benefit from this, from the stability and constructive engagement between the U.S. and China,” Putin said, adding that Moscow views closer U.S.-China dialogue as a stabilising force for the global economy.
The sequence of summits, Trump one week and Putin the next, underscores Beijing’s growing role as a key player in global diplomacy.
