Xi Jinping welcomes Vladimir Putin with pomp and pageantry

Xi Jinping welcomed Russian president Vladimir Putin with pomp and pageantry as the pair kicked off talks in the Great Hall of the People on Wednesday morning, days after the Chinese leader hosted Donald Trump in the same location.

Chinese soldiers stood in position as a military band played the Russian and Chinese national anthems for the leaders in central Beijing. Children waving Russian and Chinese flags and cheered “Welcome, welcome!” in Chinese, before the pair entered the Great Hall.

The scene was reminiscent of Trump’s high-profile meeting with Xi in Beijing last week, when the leaders of the world’s two largest economies discussed issues from trade and investment, to the Iran conflict and Taiwan.

Talks between Xi and Putin began with a shorter so-called “narrow format meeting”, featuring fewer delegates to discuss sensitive issues, before both leaders held a “wide format meeting” with their delegations. China’s foreign minister Wang Yi, who greeted Putin when he landed in Beijing on Tuesday evening, is also expected to hold talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.

Chinese state media reported that Xi, in his opening remarks, said the two countries should help one another with national development and revitalisation, adding that the world is in danger of reverting back to the “law of the jungle”.

In his opening remarks, Putin hailed the countries’ relationship as being at an unprecedented level, as he stated that Moscow remained a “reliable energy supplier” amid the ongoing Middle East crisis. Putin also invited Xi to visit Russia next year.

Xi said further hostilities in the Middle East were “inadvisable”, and that a “comprehensive ceasefire is of utmost urgency”, state media reported.

Reciprocal trade and investment are likely to be top of the agenda for Putin as his sanctions-hit economy suffers under the growing cost of Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

As Xi was preparing to welcome Putin, the Chinese commerce ministry confirmed China will buy 200 Boeing jets and seek an extension of the trade agreement with the US that was reached in Kuala Lumpur last year. The statement marked Beijing’s first confirmation of the Boeing order which Trump alluded to last week.

The setting and manner of Xi’s encounters with other world leaders is often viewed as a signal of the Chinese president’s regard for his guest, with the optics and outcomes of his meeting with Putin to come under added scrutiny coming so soon after Trump’s visit.

In contrast to the adversarial nature of Washington and Beijing’s relationship, Putin and Xi have signalled an increasingly warm bond over recent years, with the leaders labelling one another “dear” ⁠and “old” friends.

When the Chinese leader last hosted his Russian counterpart in May 2024, the pair seemed at ease as they ditched their ties and spoke over tea in a former imperial garden that now houses Chinese Communist party offices.