Putin met with the Minister of Defense of China in the Kremlin

Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Chinese Defense Minister Li Shanfu, who arrived in Russia on a visit, on Sunday evening – according to reports from the Kremlin and Russian state agencies.

This is the first foreign trip of a Chinese minister after taking office. Earlier, the Ministry of Defense of Russia reported that the visit will take place from April 16 to 18. Li Shangfu’s meeting with Putin was not announced in advance, his meeting with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu was announced. Shoigu attended Putin’s talks with the Chinese minister, which took place in the Kremlin.

In his introductory speech, Putin called the cooperation between Moscow and Beijing in the military sphere “successful and multifaceted”, noting that the military departments of the two countries regularly exchange information and conduct joint exercises. Li Shanfu repeated the thesis of the President of the People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping, that the relations between Russia and China “surpass the military-political alliances of the Cold War”, but at the same time, they are not directed against other countries.

Any details of what was discussed at the meeting are not known.

Putin’s meeting with China’s defense minister took place a few weeks after Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s visit to Moscow. At the talks between Putin and Xi, the war in Ukraine was also discussed, and Putin said after their conclusion that Russia supports many points of the so-called Chinese peace plan.

Li Shangfu, being the head of one of the departments of the Ministry of Defense of China, was previously included in the US sanctions list – the basis for this was the military cooperation of the Chinese army with Moscow.

In connection with the visit of Xi Jinping, a number of Western countries, including the United States, expressed concerns about the possible supply of weapons and other military assistance that China could provide to Russia during the war in Ukraine. At the same time, NATO representatives emphasize that they have no data that such assistance is being provided now or will be provided in the near future. China’s official representatives, while declaring a strategic partnership with Russia, do not directly support it in the conflict with Ukraine. The so-called Chinese peace plan contains, in addition to calls for a truce and the lifting of sanctions against Russia, a clause on respecting the territorial integrity of states.