Xi to host Putin after Trump visit

• Chinese President Xi Jinping is hosting Russian President Vladimir Putin for a two-day state visit in Beijing.
• The summit takes place less than a week after US President Donald Trump's high-profile visit to China.
• Putin is pushing to advance major energy deals, specifically seeking progress on the Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping is set to host Russian President Vladimir Putin for a two-day state visit this week. The summit comes less than seven days after a high-profile visit to Beijing by US President Donald Trump.

By welcoming the two leaders in rapid succession, Beijing is actively seeking to project itself as a stable, consistent, and predictable global power.

This diplomatic positioning comes at a time when the international community is heavily shaken by ongoing trade frictions, global conflicts, and a severe energy crisis.

Partnership vs. Western pressure

Both Beijing and Moscow have cast this trip -Putin's 25th visit to China- as definitive evidence of their robust, "all-weather" strategic partnership.

The display of unity persists despite continuous pressure from Western nations urging Beijing to utilize its leverage to force Moscow into ending its war in Ukraine.

While China presents itself as a neutral peace mediator in the Ukraine conflict, Putin emphasized that China and Russia consistently support each other's "core interests."

Ian Storey, a principal fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, noted that the summit is designed to telegraph to the world that the Sino-Russian strategic partnership remains the cornerstone of both nations' foreign policies, rendering any American attempts to drive a wedge between them destined to fail.

"It's unrealistic to expect Xi to put pressure on Putin to end the war in Ukraine," Storey stated, adding that Beijing is expected to continue providing Moscow with economic assistance, diplomatic cover at the UN, and dual-use technologies.

China, however, maintains that it has never provided lethal weapons to either side of the conflict and strictly regulates all dual-use exports.

According to a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun, the two heads of state will use the visit to exchange views across all areas of bilateral relations, alongside international and regional issues of mutual concern.

Contrasting diplomacy after Trump's visit

The timing of the summit allows Beijing to contrast its diplomatic consistency against global volatility, particularly highlighting US struggles to resolve the war in Ukraine and contain a separate conflict with Iran that has disrupted global energy flows.

During Trump's visit last week, Xi described China-US ties as a relationship of "strategic stability," explicitly challenging the "strategic competition" framework previously utilized by former US President Joe Biden.

While Trump's visit generated positive optics, it yielded few major commercial agreements.

Following the trip, the White House stated that a consensus had been reached on issues intended to enhance stability for global businesses and consumers.

Beijing continues to use these state visits to reassure its Western trading partners about its economic and technological rise while downplaying bilateral risks.

Power of Siberia 2 pipeline

A central focus of Putin's visit is securing additional energy deals with the world's second-largest economy to counter ongoing Western sanctions.

Following a preliminary agreement reached during Putin's September 2025 visit, Russia and China are still trying to finalize the details of the massive Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline.

While energy shortages linked to the conflict in Iran have strengthened Russia’s geopolitical case for the pipeline, a Beijing-based industry expert indicated that China will stick to its strict energy diversification strategy.

Beijing is simultaneously holding supply discussions with Turkmenistan regarding a fourth pipeline to the giant Galkynysh gas field, a project announced in 2014 that remains unresolved due to pricing disputes and transit complexities involving Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.

For the Power of Siberia 2 project, China may agree to a broad framework covering annual supply volumes and seasonal flexibility while leaving the pricing open-ended, a negotiation process that could take years.

Nevertheless, China remains the largest buyer of Russian oil via both pipelines and sea-borne shipments, with transactions largely settled in Chinese yuan.

Chinese independent refiners remain regular customers, and state oil refiners recently resumed purchases following a brief US sanction waiver.

This follows a 2025 agreement for Russia to supply an additional 2.5 million metric tons of oil per year to China via Kazakhstan.

On May 9, Putin expressed optimism regarding these energy talks, telling reporters that a high degree of consensus has been reached to take a substantial step forward in oil and gas cooperation during this week's visit.