During a state visit to Beijing, Chinese President Xi Jinping welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Great Hall of the People with a full honor guard, a gun salute, and flag-waving children. While the Kremlin emphasized evaluating the substantive depth of the visit over its ceremonial pageantry, the event stood in sharp contrast to U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent departure from China. Despite two days of reciprocal praise, Trump’s visit concluded without any major trade breakthroughs, concrete assistance from Beijing regarding the ongoing Iran war, or a joint bilateral statement. Conversely, the Putin-Xi summit culminated in a comprehensive, 9,935-word joint statement alongside a shorter joint declaration and 20 additional bilateral agreements covering sectors from state news and sanitary norms to nuclear energy—though no massive commercial deals were immediately announced.
A central pillar of the joint Sino-Russian statement was a severe rebuke of U.S. foreign and defense policies. Both nations explicitly warned that President Trump’s proposed “Golden Dome” missile-defense shield severely threatens global strategic stability. The Golden Dome initiative envisions an expansive, multi-tiered architecture combining ground-based interceptor missiles, advanced orbital tracking sensors, and space-based weapons designed to destroy rival missiles at any stage of flight, including before launch. Beijing and Moscow argued that an unlimited global defense system fundamentally undermines the core principle of strategic stability, which relies on a balance between offensive and defensive capabilities.
Furthermore, the two leaders condemned the United States for its “irresponsible policy” in allowing the landmark 2010 New START arms control treaty to expire earlier this year without negotiating a replacement. While American critics have argued against extending the treaty to avoid restricting the U.S. while China rapidly expands its own nuclear arsenal, Russia firmly backed China’s stance to remain excluded from any potential U.S.-Russian nuclear containment talks.
The joint declaration also expressed deep concern over unnamed nuclear powers planning to forward-deploy ground-based short- and intermediate-range missiles near rival borders. Xi and Putin jointly warned that Western strategic doctrines favoring “preemptive or preventive missile strikes” to disarm or decapitate an adversary are highly destabilizing. Underscoring these heightened geopolitical tensions, Russia simultaneously broadcast military footage showing its troops transporting and loading nuclear warheads onto mobile Iskander-M missile systems as part of a massive, ongoing joint nuclear exercise spanning Russia and Belarus.
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