On March 20, 2023, China’s leader, Xi Jinping has officially wrapped up a visit to Moscow, Russia where he held nearly three full days of talks with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. The two leaders have a close friendship and have met well over 40 times now in the last decade according to NPR.

Their meeting took place with the ongoing war at Russia’s border with Ukraine. Most of Russia’s war in Ukraine left no question about Beijing’s commitment to developing a relationship with Russia’s leader. Despite Putin’s growing isolation from the global stage as its horrific war continues into the second year.

Putin has long been cast out by Western leaders like President Joe Biden and multiple British Prime Ministers because of the invasion into Ukraine made by the Russian government. And yet in meetings with Xi before cameras, the Chinese leader praises Putin’s “strong leadership”, even going as far as encouraging Russians to reelect him in 2024. It was an awkward moment for most watching and Putin has remained coy about his future political plans.

The meeting ended with more than a dozen agreements promising cooperation in areas from trade and technology to state propaganda, according to a Kremlin list. The leaders’ central statement focused on how the two countries would “deepen” their relationship, reported by CNN.

NBC news states that both leaders called for the ceasefire of actions that “increase tensions’ ‘ and “prolong” the war in Ukraine, according to their joint statement released by China’s Foreign Ministry. The statement did not acknowledge that Russia’s invasion and military assault were the cause of ongoing violence and humanitarian crisis in Ukraine.

The leaders also strongly encouraged NATO to “respect the sovereignty, security, interests,” of other countries, which is assumed to be a reference that appeared to echo a long-standing agenda from both countries falsely blaming the Western security alliance for provoking Russia to invade.