Putin's Visit to Beijing: India Needs to Be Watchful, Says Expert

Russian President Putin's visit to Beijing assumes significance as Putin chose China for his first foreign trip after being sworn in for a six-year term that will keep him in power until 2030. An expert says that India should be watchful and cognizance of the developments and take necessary actions, reports ETV Bharat's Chandrakala Choudhury. .

New Delhi: In a significant development, Russian President Putin arrived in Beijing on Thursday. The visit assumes significance as Putin chose China for his first foreign trip since being sworn in for a six-year term that will keep him in power until at least 2030. An expert opined that India needs to be watchful and cognizance of the developments and take necessary actions . "We know the strength of Russia-China partnership, but India do not want Moscow to totally dependent upon China and not have other options in terms of their strategic outlook. In this context, India need to continue to broaden relationships with Russia".

India's former diplomat Ashok Sajjanhar noted that President Putin is not welcome anywhere else except for China and few countries in Central Asia. Putin has not visited India in many years. He is isolated in the world and being a good friend to China, his visit is definitely a message to the world that the relationship is dynamic and strong.

"His visit to China is no surprise at all as far as the kind of support that China has given to Russia after the Ukraine conflict. Even since 2014 , after the first sanctions that has been imposed, Beijing has been there for Russia as a tested partner. Chinese Prez Xi has also visited Russia. However, the spine that India has shown in standing with Russia is much greater than China".

"China's relations with the US is full of tension, while, as far as India is concerned, we have the best of relations with the US. So for China to stand against the United States and the west and having a strong relations with Russia is important. But, the fact India has stood up to the West when it has excellent relations with all these countries, has signalled much greater resilience and commitment," Sajjanhar explained.

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Beijing early on Thursday for talks with Xi Jinping with the hope to deepen a strategic partnership between the two most powerful geopolitical rivals of the United States.

China and Russia declared no limits partnership in February 2022 when Putin visited Beijing just days before he sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine, triggering the deadliest land war in Europe since World War Two. Before his visit, in an interview with China's Xinhua news agency, Putin praised Xi for helping to build a strategic partnership with Russia based on national interests and deep mutual trust.

"It was the unprecedentedly high level of the strategic partnership between our countries that determined my choice of China as the first state that I would visit after officially taking office as president of the Russian Federation," Putin said.

"We will try to establish closer cooperation in the field of industry and high technology, space and peaceful nuclear energy, Artificial Intelligence, renewable energy sources and other innovative sectors," Putin said. The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and BRICS, which have well established themselves as key pillars of the emerging multipolar world order, can be cited as vivid examples of such mutually beneficial cooperation," Putin said.

"Our countries have similar or coinciding positions on key issues on the international agenda. We advocate for the primacy of international law, equal, indivisible, comprehensive and sustainable security at both the global and regional level with the UN's central coordinating role," said Prez Putin. Putin also rejected Western attempts to impose an order based on lies and hypocrisy, on some mythical rules of no one knows whose making.

According to sources, President Putin and Xi will take part in a gala evening celebrating 75 years since the Soviet Union recognised the People's Republic of China, which was declared by Mao Zedong in 1949. On Thursday, Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing where the two heads of state signed and issued a joint declaration on deepening the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership for the new era on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.