President Xi congratulates Putin, says his poll victory reflects Russian people's support

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday congratulated his Russian counterpart on his re-election, saying Vladimir Putin's victory fully reflects the Russian people's support for him and that Beijing is ready to promote close strategic ties with Moscow further.

In recent years, the Russian people have united as one, overcome challenges, and made steady progress towards national development and revitalisation, Xi said in his congratulatory message to Putin.

The re-election of Putin as president fully reflects the Russian people's support for him, Xi, who shared close relations with Putin, said, the official media here reported.

Russia will surely make greater achievements in national development and construction under Putin's leadership, Xi said.

Noting that Beijing attaches great importance to the development of China-Russia relations, Xi said China stands ready to maintain close communication with Russia to promote the sustained, sound, stable and in-depth development of the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for a new era to benefit the two nations and their people.

In his victory speech, Putin said that his "good personal relations" with Xi enabled advances in bilateral ties, a relationship he described as a "factor of stability" in international relations, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.

"The relations between Russia and China are a stabilising factor, while good personal relations between the leaders of the two nations allow to develop ties even further," Putin said at his campaign headquarters, according to Tass news agency.

"Our relations have been taking shape over the past two decades. They are very strong and we are complementing each other," he said.

Referring to Chinese leader Xi, Putin said: "I'm sure that this relationship will be maintained, including, to a great extent, thanks to our good personal relationship with the president of the People's Republic of China.

''But the most important thing is that our national interests coincide, and this creates a favourable environment for resolving our common tasks and in the sphere of international relations, where relations between Russia and China serve as a factor of stability." Commenting on Putin's victory China's new Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said that under the strategic Xi-Putin, the China-Russia relations will continue to make progress.

"This year marks the 75th anniversary of China-Russia relations. The two presidents will continue to maintain close interaction, lead the two countries in upholding everlasting good-neighbourliness and friendship, deepen comprehensive strategic coordination and advance the China-Russia relations in the new era", he said.

Xi maintained close ties with Putin ever since he took over the leadership of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) in 2012 and transformed the China-Russian relationship into a comprehensive strategic partnership.

Both leaders firmed up the bilateral ties after Russia launched the war against Ukraine.

Though China claims to be neutral in the Ukraine-Russia war, Beijing has refused to condemn the Russian military action against Ukraine and blamed NATO for engaging in five rounds of eastward expansion in the last two decades, prompting Moscow to take measures to defend its security and sovereignty.

China also benefitted by increasing the import of Russian oil and gas at cheaper rates.

Observers say that the relations between the two countries will only deepen after Putin's victory with no effective political opposition to him in Russia.

"China hopes that its relationship with Russia will be stable. As long as it is under the leadership of Putin, China-Russia relations will definitely continue to consolidate," said Wang Yiwei, a Renmin University professor specialising in Europe affairs.

"The leaders have had a profound working friendship for more than 10 years. Trust between the leaders is very important," he told South China Morning Post.

Xi and Putin have met 42 times since Xi came to power in 2013. They last met in October during the Belt and Road forum in Beijing, where they reaffirmed deepening political trust between the two countries.

The two leaders are expected to meet again several times this year, according to the Chinese ambassador to Moscow Zhang Hanhui, who last month announced Putin's plan to visit China this year, the Post reported.

One opportunity for the two to talk will be when Russia hosts the BRICS summit in Kazan in October, a year after the group expanded from five members to 11.

Wang said there was a lot of misunderstanding about China's ties with Russia, a partnership that Beijing usually describes as "non-alliance, non-confrontation and not targeting any third party".

"The purpose of closer relations between China and Russia is not to confront NATO, the US or the West. This is not what China hopes," he said.

"The Chinese especially do not want Russia to be used as a bargaining chip against the West, because China still hopes to maintain a relatively good relationship with the West. This is different from Russia, which already has very tense relations with the West," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)