President Vladimir Putin arrived in Beijing yesterday for yet another summit meeting with President Xi Jinping of China. This would be the 45th time the two world leaders have met since about 13 years ago.
In 2013 Xi Jinping made his first foreign visit to Russia as Chinese president, meeting Putin in Moscow. Symbolically important: Xi chose Moscow before Washington, Brussels or Tokyo. Since then the two leaders have met 45 times.
- February 2014: Sochi Winter Olympics
- May 2014: Shanghai summit
- November 2014: Beijing APEC
- May 2017: Belt and Road Forum, Beijing
- September 2018: Vladivostok Eastern Economic Forum
- 2020 COVID largely interrupted physical diplomacy.
- 2021 Frequent virtual/video meetings.
- 4 February 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics - Signed the famous “no limits partnership” declaration just weeks before the Ukraine war.
- 45 meetings in ~13 years
- ≈ 3.5 meetings per year
- roughly one meeting every 3–4 months
- unusually intensive diplomacy between major-power leaders.
- Why so many meetings?
- Energy interdependence:
- Russia exports oil and gas.
- China needs secure supply.
- Multilateral forums: BRICS, Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, G20
Russia rises dramatically to #4 in the world under PPP at roughly $7.14 trillion.
China remains solidly #2 globally by nominal GDP, around US$19–20 trillion.
China becomes world's largest economy by PPP at $40–41 trillion, ahead of USA
USA GDP by PPP in 2025 was US$30 Trillion.
By PPP Russia is the largest European economy,
European rank US$ PPP
1 Russia $7.14T
2 Germany ~$6T
3 United Kingdom ~$4–5T
4 France ~$4–5T
