Two friends, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping have pledged to take on the world order together as ‘old friends.’
Seen today in Moscow to celebrate Victory Day with Putin, China’s president Xi said that his nation was ‘ready to work with Russia to promote an equal, orderly, multiolar and inclusive economic globalisation.’
He said Beijing would stand with Moscow in the face of ‘hegemonic bullying’, adding: ‘in the face of the international counter-current of unilateralism and hegemonic bullying behaviour, China will work with Russia to shoulder the special responsibilities of major world powers.’
He added that he was ‘visit Russia against at the invitation of my old friend president Putin.’
President Xi is the most high-profile guest at Vladimir Putin’s Victory Day celebrations, in which Russia is celebrating victory over the Nazis during the Second World War.
The Russian leader said today: ‘The victory over fascism, achieved at the cost of enormous sacrifices, is of lasting significance.
‘Together with our Chinese friends, we firmly stand guard over historical truth, protect the memory of the events of the war years, and counteract modern manifestations of neo-Nazism and militarism’, making a thinly veiled reference to his own justification to his invasion of Ukraine.
Xi said they would ‘jointly promote the correct view of the history of World War Two, safeguard the authority and status of the United Nations, resolutely defend the rights and interests of China, Russia and the vast majority of developing countries, and work together to promote an equal, orderly, multipolar, and inclusive economic globalisation’.
