China and Russia, at a joint summit on May 20, condemned US President Donald Trump's plans to create the Golden Dome anti-missile shield and Washington's "irresponsible" nuclear policy.
Points of attention
- Xi and Putin condemn US President Donald Trump's plans for the Golden Dome anti-missile shield and 'irresponsible' nuclear policy.
- The joint statement by Xi and Putin highlights concerns over the expiration of the treaty limiting nuclear arsenals, expressing outrage over Trump's failure to extend it.
Xi and Putin lashed out at Trump over the Golden Shield and nuclear policy
A joint statement by Xi and Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin said Trump's plan for a ground-based and space-based missile interceptor system poses a threat to global strategic stability.
It also criticized the United States for the February expiration of the last treaty limiting the size of the US and Russian nuclear arsenals, as Trump reportedly failed to respond to Moscow's offer to extend the treaty for another year.
Xi and Putin both emphasized the close Russian-Chinese ties, which they cemented in 2022 with the signing of a strategic partnership treaty, less than three weeks before Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The joint statement with criticism was released a week after President Xi Jinping hosted Trump in Beijing.
While the summit with Trump was largely devoted to resolving tensions between the world's two most powerful nations, the meeting with Putin posed a different challenge: how to demonstrate progress in a relationship that both sides have already declared "boundless," the publication notes.
However, there has been no apparent breakthrough on the giant new gas pipeline, the Power of Siberia-2, which the parties have been discussing for years. Ahead of the visit, Moscow made it clear that it was seeking new energy deals with China, the largest buyer of Russian oil.
Although Xi said on Wednesday that energy cooperation and resource integration should become a "core" in Sino-Russian relations, he did not mention the gas pipeline.
