By Fan Anqi and Shen Sheng
Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Tuesday that the China-Russia relationship has become an example of major-country ties, featuring permanent good-neighborly friendship, comprehensive strategic coordination and mutually beneficial cooperation, Xinhua News Agency reported.Xi made the remarks while holding talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is in China for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit 2025, as well as commemorations marking the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War.
China is ready to strengthen high-level exchanges with Russia, support each other’s development and revitalization, coordinate positions on issues involving the two countries’ core interests and major concerns in a timely manner, and advance bilateral relations for greater development, Xi said, per Xinhua.
Xi also noted that the two sides should leverage major projects to steer their cooperation, develop exemplary cooperation projects, and promote deep-level integration of interests.
The two countries’ heads of state attending each other’s commemorations marking the victory of the World Anti-Fascist War fully demonstrates their responsibility as major victorious nations of World War II and permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, Xi said. It also displays their firm resolve to defend the victorious outcomes of WWII and safeguard a correct historical perspective of WWII, he noted.
Speaking of the Global Governance Initiative he just put forward, Xi said the aim of proposing the initiative is to work together with all like-minded countries to resolutely safeguard the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, and build a more just and equitable global governance system.
According to a video published on the Kremlin’s official Telegram messaging app, the Russian leader hailed the close communication between the two sides reaching “an unprecedentedly high level,” Reuters reported on Tuesday.
Beijing is the second stop for the Russian leader during his four-day visit to China. He arrived in the northeastern city of Tianjin on Sunday for the SCO summit, which was attended by leaders from more than 20 nations including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, per media reports.
The two leaders held informal talks on the sidelines of the SCO summit in Tianjin on Monday, where Putin briefed Xi about his meeting with US President Trump in Alaska last month, Russia’s Tass news agency reported.
Putin arrived in Beijing in the early hours of Tuesday by car, using a Chinese license plate, according to media reports. Explaining the significance of the plate number, which contained two eights, Russian journalist Pavel Zarubin wrote on his Telegram channel that the number eight is regarded in China as especially lucky, symbolizing prosperity and wealth, the Russian Gazette reported.
Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday that the Russian President rarely undertakes multi-day international visits, and even domestic inspections seldom last for several days, yet this visit to China, which lasts nearly four days, indicates that Putin indeed feels at home in China, CCTV reported.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun announced at Tuesday’s press conference that to further facilitate cross-border travel, China decided to expand its visa waiver program and extend visa-free policy to ordinary passport holders from Russia on a trial basis from September 15, 2025 to September 14, 2026. Ordinary passport holders from Russia can be exempted from visa to enter China and stay for no more than 30 days for business, tourism, family/friends visit, exchange and transit purposes.
Chinese observers believe the China-Russia leaders’ meeting in Beijing is crucial, reflecting growing alignment in the two countries’ values.
“Both nations uphold a correct historical view and preserve historical memory amid Western historical revisionism and efforts to rewrite historical narratives. Second, they share a vision for global governance, with consensus on principles like sovereign equality, international law, and multilateralism. Rooted in shared views on history and the future, their past and ongoing actions demonstrate unity,” Cui Heng, a scholar at the Shanghai-based China National Institute for SCO International Exchange and Judicial Cooperation, told the Global Times on Tuesday.
China-Russia relations serve as a stabilizer and anchor for global order, preventing certain nations from undermining the post-WWII principles of fairness and justice, Cui noted.
Broader engagement, stronger ties
On Tuesday, Xi held a trilateral meeting with Putin and Mongolian President Ukhnaa Khurelsukh, the seventh of its kind among the heads of the three states, according to Xinhua. Xi called for consolidating political mutual trust and deepening mutually beneficial cooperation among China, Russia and Mongolia.
Xi said the three countries should deepen mutually beneficial cooperation, advance cross-border infrastructure and energy projects, enhance the alignment of development strategies, expand the scale of local currency settlement, and strengthen cooperation in tourism and cultural heritage conservation.
Xi also called for enhancing collaboration within the framework of the SCO, leveraging various platforms and centers established during the SCO Tianjin Summit to seek broader cooperation.
Putin said that enhancing political mutual trust is very important, which is conducive to consolidating the foundation of the trilateral relations, Xinhua reported.
The three sides need to align their development strategies closely, enhance connectivity, expand the scale of trade and investment, and deepen cooperation and exchanges in finance, energy, digital economy, education, environmental protection, tourism and other fields, so as to boost economic development, promote regional economic integration, and enhance the bonds among the peoples, Putin said.
Khurelsukh expressed Mongolia’s dedication to advancing the construction of the China-Mongolia-Russia Economic Corridor, enhancing people-to-people and cultural exchanges, and promoting regional development and prosperity.
This year marks the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the Soviet Union’s Great Patriotic War. The peoples of Mongolia, China and Russia should jointly commemorate this historic occasion and carry forward the correct view of the World War II history, Khurelsukh said.
Strengthening cooperation among China, Russia, and Mongolia is vital for all three parties, and is crucial for regional stability and development, Zhang Hong, a research fellow at the Institute of Russian, Eastern European and Central Asian Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Tuesday.
“As a landlocked country, Mongolia’s good relations with China and Russia are critical to its national security and economic development,” Zhang said.
In addition to the trilateral meeting, the media is closely watching whether the leaders of China, Russia, and North Korea will meet in Beijing. In response to a question asking for details, spokesperson Guo Jiakun responded on Tuesday that “we will release information in due course about the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War. On your specific question, I have no information to share.”
