Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping tour a photo exhibition by the TASS and Xinhua news agencies at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, Wednesday. Reuters-Yonhap
BEIJING — China and Russia condemned U.S. President Donald Trump's Golden Dome missile defence shield plans and Washington's "irresponsible" nuclear policy at a summit on Wednesday, a week after President Xi Jinping hosted Trump in Beijing.
A joint statement issued after Xi's summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin served to underline that, while the Chinese leader seeks stable and constructive relations with Trump, he differs fundamentally with him on key issues where China's position is closely aligned with Russia's.
The statement said Trump's plan for a ground- and space-based missile interceptor system threatened global strategic stability and criticised Washington for allowing a treaty restricting the U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals to expire.
The treaty lapsed in February and Trump did not respond to Moscow's proposal to extend its missile and warhead limits by a year - something that some U.S. politicians argued would have hindered the U.S. from responding to a nuclear build-up by China.
Yet while speaking in unison on global security issues, the two leaders failed to reach a breakthrough that Moscow has long been seeking - a contract for a new pipeline that would enable it to more than double the amount of natural gas it sells to China.
Xi was wrapping up a remarkable week of diplomacy in which he met the leaders of China's most powerful strategic rival and one of its closest partners.
With Trump seeking an exit from a war with Iran and Putin's forces largely bogged down in Ukraine, the summits provided China's leader with a chance to showcase Beijing as a pillar of global stability and an indispensable diplomatic player.
"Xi does appear to hold the stronger position relative to both Putin and Trump. Both leaders are grappling with conflicts of their own making that have proven far more difficult to resolve than initially anticipated," said Patricia Kim, a foreign policy fellow at the Washington-based Brookings Institution.
"Xi, meanwhile, has been able to focus more squarely on strengthening China internally while projecting an image of a stable and confident great power on the global stage."
Source: Korea Times News
