Chinese leader, Xi Jinping has delivered a chilling message for the West as he tells ‘dear friend’ Vladimir Putin ‘change is coming that hasn’t happened in 100 years’.
The statement came during their meeting in Moscow, where they signed a number of agreements aimed at boosting bilateral co-operation on various issues.
In February 2022, the pair announced they had forged a ‘no limits’ friendship and Putin invited Xi to visit the Russian capital.
They have since publicly talked of strengthening their ‘special relationship’, with Moscow and Beijing both rejecting what they say are US attempts to create a ‘unipolar world’ controlled by Washington.
Putin had invited Xi to visit the Russian capital, which led to the two publicly discussing strengthening their ‘special relationship’.
Putin and Xi criticised the AUKUS security pact, which seeks to develop a nuclear-powered submarine program in Australia with the US and Britain.
Putin, along with Xi, denounced the pact, further complicating the security dynamics in the Asia-Pacific region.
‘Many of the provisions of the peace plan put forward by China… can be taken as the basis for a peaceful settlement when Kyiv and the West will be ready for it,’ Putin said after talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
‘However, so far we have not seen such readiness on their part.’
But it was one particular comment during Xi’s departure that showed some of the recently re-elected leader’s hand.
‘Change is coming that hasn’t happened in 100 years. And we are driving this change together,’ Xi told Putin, via his interpreter, before telling his ‘dear friend’ to ‘please take care’.
After the two leaders hailed a ‘new era’, Xi’s plane left Moscow’s Vnukovo airport on Wednesday.
He was seen off by a guard of honour who played the Russian and Chinese national anthems, Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency said.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, on the other hand, said Kyiv had invited China to talks, and is waiting for an answer from Beijing.
‘We offered China to become a partner in the implementation of the peace formula. We passed over our formula across all channels. We invite you to dialogue. We are waiting for your answer,’ Zelensky told a press conference.
The United States, however, said it does not see China as capable of being an impartial mediator — Washington’s most direct criticism yet of Beijing’s aim to be a middleman in efforts to end the conflict.
