China, at the ball of senior officials during the meeting of its Parliament in March, inaugurated its new defense minister, Li Shangfu (65 years old), a veteran general sanctioned by the United States for buying weapons from Russia. Moscow was precisely the destination chosen by Li for his first trip abroad, also becoming the first visit by a Chinese defense chief since the Russian army launched the invasion of Ukraine.
Before taking the plane, Li's agenda released by Beijing included a meeting with his counterpart Sergei Shoigu as the most prominent meeting in the Russian capital. Instead, late Sunday night, the Kremlin published some photos of a meeting in which, in addition to Li and Shoigu, Vladimir Putin was also present.
"We are actively working through our military departments and regularly exchange useful information. China is willing to work together with Russia to strengthen strategic communication between the two militaries," the Russian leader said.
"In recent times, Russia-China cooperation in military-technical spheres has developed very well, which has helped boost regional security," he added.
Putin and Li praised the good health of the military cooperation between the two countries, something that can be deduced from the various maneuvers that both navies have carried out hand in hand since the invasion of Ukraine began.
The last joint war games were carried out in March together with Iran in the Gulf of Oman. At the end of last week, after China simulated a new invasion of Taiwan, Russia announced a show of force with military exercises in the Pacific, near the Kuril Islands, in dispute with Japan since the end of World War II. .
In Japan, while the Chinese defense minister met with Putin, the G7 foreign ministers began a summit that will last until Tuesday and will try to project unity against Moscow and Beijing. "I specifically chose Russia as my first overseas visit since taking office in order to emphasize the special nature and strategic importance of our bilateral ties," Li remarked in his meeting with Putin.
The Chinese minister, who, in addition to being a military man, is an aerospace engineer, is directly responsible for communication with the navies of other countries, but his decision-making power is limited by the Central Military Commission. This body made up of seven senior army commanders, including Li, is under the absolute supervision of President Xi Jinping, who is also head of the commission as the Asian giant's highest military authority.
"China is willing to work with Russia to make new contributions to the maintenance of global and regional security and stability," the Chinese minister continued in front of Putin, ending his speech, in statements broadcast on Russian television, ensuring that the ties between the two countries "overcome the military-political alliances of the Cold War era."
This meeting in Moscow comes a few days after the leak of classified national security documents from the US Ministry of Defense. In one of them, dated February 23, it is stated that Beijing would have approved the "provision of lethal aid to Russia for its war in Ukraine", but that the second world power wanted the shipments, disguising them as "civilian articles", they remained secret. According to the Washington Post, this information was compiled by US intelligence agents who eavesdropped on the discussions of the Russian secret service.
China has repeatedly denied that it has provided - or intends to provide - any kind of military support to Russia. Even from NATO and the US they have said they have no evidence that the Xi Jinping regime was supplying Putin's troops with weapons.
This weekend, Reuters, citing an adviser in the office of President Volodymyr Zelensky, claimed that Ukrainian military commanders had found Chinese components in Russian weapons used in Ukraine, such as a navigation system in unmanned aircraft and another for fire control. in tanks. After the publication of this information, from Beijing, the Foreign Affairs spokesman has defended that his country carries out normal commercial cooperation with all countries, including Russia, and that, in terms of exports of military articles, "China has adopted a prudent and responsible attitude at all times".
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
