Xi Jinping: Putin is my ‘best friend’

In his visit to Moscow, the Chinese president outlines agreement with Putin on various issues: Iran, the Middle East, Venezuela. Cooperation on the Arctic route strengthened. A contract for Huawei, hit by US sanctions.

Moscow (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Chinese President Xi Jinping described Vladimir Putin as his "best friend". Xi is in Russia for a 3-day visit on the occasion of the 70 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

In a press conference yesterday, he said that in all these years "in the past six years, we have met nearly 30 times. Russia is the country that I have visited the most times, and President Putin is my best friend and colleague". The underlining seems to complement the claims often repeated by Donald Trump, according to which Xi is "a good friend".

Xi spoke of many things with Putin, including "literature, art and sport", but an alliance has also emerged on various points, such as Iran and the Middle East, which puts this friendship in opposition to the United States. Xi said " With the US recently imposing extreme pressure and unilateral sanctions on Iran, tensions over the nuclear issue in Iran and even the entire Middle East have become worrying... China and Russia share a highly unified view on the Iran nuclear issue, and we both hope that all parties involved can remain reasonable and restrained, and strengthen dialogue and consultation to reduce tensions".

According to Xi there is also harmony (anti-US) on Venezuela (no to foreign interference) and on the fight against Islamic terrorism in Central Asia (and Xinjiang).

For his part, Putin confirmed that "the positions of Russia and China on key and global issues are similar or coincide ... We stated that they had reached a very high - and without any exaggeration - an unprecedentedly high level ".

Among the fruits of the meeting is a strengthening of the North Sea Road program, with the construction of ports to cross the Arctic and a contract with Huawei to develop a 5G network in Russia. The agreement will offer support to the Chinese technology giant that in recent months has been banned from the US as a danger to national security.

Both nations are subject to US  sanctions and pressure and therefore have further strengthened their collaboration. In 2018 China-Russia trade grew by 25% to reach 108 billion dollars.