Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping have reaffirmed their "no-limits" partnership that has deepened as both countries face rising tensions with the West, and they criticised US military alliances in Asia and the Pacific region.
At their summit in Beijing, Putin thanked Xi for China's proposals for ending the war in Ukraine, which have been rejected by Ukraine and its Western supporters as largely following the Kremlin's line.
Putin's two-day state visit to one of his strongest allies and trading partners comes as Russian forces are pressing an offensive in northeastern Ukraine's Kharkiv region in the most significant border incursion since the full-scale invasion began on February 24, 2022.
China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin's contentions that Russia was provoked into attacking Ukraine by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for weapons production.
China, which hasn't criticised the invasion, proposed a broadly worded peace plan in 2023, calling for a ceasefire and for direct talks between Moscow and Kyiv.
The plan was rejected by both Ukraine and the West for failing to call for Russia to leave occupied parts of Ukraine.
China also gave a rhetorical nod to Russia's narrative about Nazism in Ukraine, with a joint statement that said Moscow and Beijing should defend the post-World War II order and "severely condemn the glorification of or even attempts to revive Nazism and militarism".
Putin has cited the "denazification" of Ukraine as a main goal of the military action, falsely describing the government of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is Jewish and lost relatives in the Holocaust, as neo-Nazis.
The largely symbolic and ceremonial visit stressed partnership between two countries who both face challenges in their relationship with the US and Europe.
"Both sides want to show that despite what is happening globally, despite the pressure that both sides are facing from the US, both sides are not about to turn their backs on each other anytime soon," said Hoo Tiang Boon, who researches Chinese foreign policy at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University.
While Putin and Xi said they were seeking an end to the war, they offered no new proposals in their public remarks.
"China hopes for the early return of Europe to peace and stability and will continue to play a constructive role toward this," Xi said in prepared remarks to media in Beijing's Great Hall of the People.
His words echoed what China said when it offered a broad plan for peace.
Zelensky has said any negotiations must include a restoration of Ukraine's territorial integrity, the withdrawal of Russian troops, the release of all prisoners, a tribunal for those responsible for the aggression and security guarantees for Ukraine.
The meeting was yet another affirmation of the friendly "no-limits" relationship China and Russia signed in 2022, just before Moscow invaded Ukraine.
Since then, Russia has become increasingly dependent economically on China as Western sanctions cut its access to much of the international trading system.
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