Putin and Xi Are More Divided Than Ever. And More United
The fissures in their “no limits” friendship are plain to see. But the weaker they both are, the greater their incentive to hang together.
All smiles … for now.
Photographer: Sergei Karpukhin/AFP/Getty Images
This week, Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to visit China for the first time since he and Chinese President Xi Jinping declared a “no limits” friendship between their nations in February 2022, just before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Signs of strain in that partnership are increasingly obvious. But they’re more likely to bring the two sides closer than to drive them apart.
Before Putin and Xi signed their joint declaration, some of America’s most respected foreign policy thinkers had urged the US to pursue a “reverse Nixon” strategy — seeking to pry Russia away from China’s embrace. The hope remains very much alive in some quarters. Even Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy recently floated the idea of allowing Russia to keep the Ukrainian land it has grabbed as reward for bolting from China’s orbit.