Putin Claims There’s No Russia-China Military Alliance

Russia and China are not making a military alliance, and cooperation between their armed forces is “clear,” President Vladimir Putin said in comments that were broadcast on Sunday, days after he met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in the Kremlin.

During their meeting on March 20 and 21, Putin and Xi said they were friends and promised closer ties, including in the military. This came as Russia struggles to make gains on the battlefield in what it calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine.

Putin said on state TV, “We are not making a military alliance with China.” “Yes, we do work together when it comes to military-technical interaction. This is not a secret.

“Everything is open and nothing is hidden.”

Early in 2022, China and Russia signed an agreement that said they would work together with “no limits.” This was just a few weeks before Putin sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine. Beijing hasn’t said anything bad about Putin’s decision and has been promoting a plan for peace in Ukraine. The West thinks that its plans are just a way for Putin to buy more time so that he can rebuild his forces in Ukraine.

Washington has recently said that it is worried that Beijing might give Russia weapons, which China denies.

In his televised comments, Putin said that “jealous people” were behind the idea that Russia was becoming too dependent on China because of its growing ties with Beijing in areas like energy and finance.

“Many people have wanted to turn China against the Soviet Union and Russia for decades, and the same is true in the other direction,” he said. “We know the world in which we live. We really value the level that our relationships have reached over the past few years.”

‘GLOBAL NATO’

Putin also said that the US and NATO were trying to build a new global “axis” that was similar to the alliance between Nazi Germany, fascist Italy, and imperial Japan during World War II.

Putin said that Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea could join a “global NATO,” and he mentioned a defense deal that Britain and Japan signed earlier this year.

“That’s why analysts in the West talk about how the West is starting to build a new axis like the one made in the 1930s by Germany, Italy, and militaristic Japan,” he said.

This year, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg went to Japan and South Korea and talked about how important it is for the Atlantic alliance to work closely with its partners in the Indo-Pacific region. He has also talked about how tensions are getting worse between the West and China and asked for more military help for Ukraine.

Putin has said that Russia’s actions in Ukraine are a defensive pushback against an aggressive and hostile West. He has compared this to Moscow’s fight against Nazi German forces during World War II.

Such claims are laughable to Kyiv and its Western allies, who say that Moscow wants to take over territory and make it hard for Ukraine to function as an independent state.

Ukraine says that there can’t be peace talks until all Russian troops leave its land. Russia says that Ukraine must be willing to give up large parts of land that Moscow says it has taken over.

Putin’s comments came a day after he said that Russia would put tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus as a warning to NATO over its military support for Ukraine.