Just moments ago, Chinese leader Xi Jinping arrived in Moscow for a three day
state visit.
This is his first visit to Russia since Russia invaded Ukraine.
And later this morning, he will hold a one on one meeting with Vladimir Putin.
This is Western leaders grow very weary of the two nations deepening cooperation.
Ivan Watson joins us live from Kiev, Ukraine.
Ivan, thank you very much for being with us.
This is such a significant meeting
and it comes just on the heels of President Putin
going to Mariupol right after he visited Crimea and Rostov on.
There is so much at stake here.
And the West obviously very concerned, even though China is feeling
this as a mission of peace.
Right.
And the Ukrainians watching this very nervously.
And that's because Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin,
they keep talking about their friendship with no limits.
This incredible basically alliance between Russia and China.
Xi Jinping sent a letter to Russian state media before this trip.
He says this is the 10th time he's visiting Russia since he became president.
It'll be his 40th meeting with Vladimir Putin.
He had some digs in his letter, thinly veiled at the U.S.
complaining about hegemony and and calling for a more democratic, multipolar world.
What he did not mention at all was Russia's
invasion of Ukraine a year ago and the ongoing war.
Instead, Xi Jinping referred to this as the Ukraine crisis and claimed that
Beijing is neutral in this, that he wants peace
negotiations and dialog.
He has yet to speak directly with the Ukrainian
president, Volodymyr Zelensky, since Russia's invasion a year ago.
And when it comes to the International Criminal Court issuing an arrest warrant
on Friday against Vladimir Putin for alleged war crimes.
Well, the Chinese Foreign Ministry has weighed in on that.
It is calling for the ICC to be objective and impartial.
Rule to respect the jurisdictional immunity enjoyed by a head of state
and to avoid politicization and double standards.
So take that into context when you discuss
China's claimed neutrality in this war.
And China has at no point
throughout this war it condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
They remain a huge buyer of Russian oil helping finance all of this.
And one of the things that the West, John Kirby here
in the US and the White House has been warning against is
if China were to come out after this visit, Ivan and
say, well, there should be a
peace deal right now that would not be palatable by Ukraine
in the West, given that Russia has taken more territory
than when this all began.
Sure.
And has declared that it is annexing Ukrainian
territory seized since the invasion of last year.
And to underscore that you had Vladimir Putin on Saturday,
fresh from this ICC arrest warrant, visiting the Russian occupied Ukrainian
city of Mariupol, all the Kremlin says he landed by helicopter.
He drove himself into the outskirts of that shattered city
and visited an apartment building that the Russian government
just built while he's meeting with some of the residents there Poppy.
You hear a voice off camera that our linguists say
somebody was yelling, this is all a show.
It's not true.
This time last year, the Russian military had encircled
that city and was bombing it from land, sea and air, destroying much of it.
And I was interviewing residents who were fleeing, who described
spending weeks under bombardment, terrified, hiding in basements,
burying neighbors who got killed by Russian
artillery in the front yards of their apartment buildings.
And I spoke to one of the women I met a year ago who escaped.
She's living she's a refugee overseas.
She said seeing Vladimir Putin in her hometown
is like seeing a serial killer return to the scene of the crime.
Yeah, of course it is.
And that really says it all.
Ivan Watson, thank you for the reporting from Kiev.
Talk to us about what you expect from these three days, given the fact
that China that Xi Jinping just said moments ago reiterated his willingness
to work with Vladimir Putin to, quote, safeguard the international order.
This is after Putin just before invading Ukraine,
talked about their relationship, these two leaders, as a no limits partnership
That's right.
I worry about two different things here.
The first I've raised before, which is do we see arms?
And, you know, basically we see the Chinese getting further into this war.
Think the second thing to look for is whether or not
in some kind of peace proposal for an armistice or a cease fire,
essentially the Chinese come in on the side of the Russians
to try to cement the gains that they have right now.
And that's why you're hearing from the Americans
and from President Stilinski and Ukrainians, great concern
that China would seek in some way
to reward Russia and basically freeze this the way the Korean conflict
has been frozen now for 50 or 60 years.
This seems to be what they're really worried about the US
in terms of trying to preempt John Kirby, who's going to come on the program
a little later today, has been saying it would not be acceptable.
So China is trying to play this peacemaker,
but it would not be acceptable for China to come out and say,
okay, let's push towards peace right now in this moment.
Because in this moment, Russia has taken more
Ukrainian territory than obviously before the invasion
That's right.
And that's a significant worry.
On the other hand, the trends have to be a little bit cautious here,
and they have to be cautious because they're worried about Europe.
They would like to make sure that Europe does not join
in any sanctions against China, that they that Europe
and the United States do not tighten this bond that has been created
since the the war began.
And, you know, Europe's a major trading partner for them
and is continuing to take a good deal of their technology.
So I think they're not going to want to get in too deep.
And that's one reason I think, that they've probably been cautious so far
in providing weapons to the Russians.
The problem is the Russians don't have very many other places to turn right now.
Their only other sources are Iran and North Korea.
And obviously, the quality of that is not up to what China could give them.
Also, David, what it says about China on the world stage,
because this comes after China just brokered
a diplomatic deal with Iran and Saudi Arabia.
Now we're seeing them try to assert themselves in this way, saying,
you know, they are this powerful influence when it comes to international order.
They would love nothing more, Caitlin,
than to play the role that the United States played during
much of the Cold War in post-Cold War period,
which is the central player that everybody had to come to
so that they could organize the world on the basis of the rules
that they consider advantageous And they think the United States did this
from the end of World War Two in 1945 through to just a few years ago.
And that's why it was so important to them.
To play this role between Iran and Saudi Arabia
and would be important to them to do this now.
And of course, the United States not only doesn't want to give up
its position on that, but it also is suspicious
that China is not the neutral player that it pretends to be.
Of course, that's what the Chinese say about the United States.
All of it.
And very interesting optics for Vladimir Putin,
especially after just visiting Mariupol, I going to the war zone.
David, what do you make of that?
It is
I mean, he was doing two or three things there, Don.
The first is he wanted to say, this is my territory now.
You know, this is an area that obviously they not only bombed and destroyed,
but it's an area where they kidnaped many of those children for whom
he was indicted by the International Criminal Court.
Because second thing he was saying was the indictment means nothing to me,
in fact.
They'll continue with all of their activities in Mariupol.
That they have done until now.
So it was a real act of defiance.
And clearly getting into the endorsement of having Xi Jinping show up
for their 39th meeting
since the two of them took over as leaders.
That's pretty significant.
All right. David Sanger. Always a pleasure.
Good to see you. Thank you so much.