Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin united to condemn attempts to dominate global affairs using the “law of the jungle” in a thinly veiled swipe at Donald Trump during their joint summit in Beijing, but failed to seal a vital deal on a gas pipeline.
China and Russia condemned the US president’s Golden Dome missile defence shield plans and Washington's "irresponsible" nuclear policy at a highly anticipated meeting on Wednesday, less than a week after Mr Trump was welcomed by Mr Xi to the Chinese capital.
A statement from Mr Xi and Putin said Mr Trump's plan for a ground and space-based missile interceptor system posed a threat to global strategic stability.
While emphasising that relations between Beijing and Moscow had reached an “unprecedented level”, Mr Xi did not sign a deal on the Power of Siberia 2 natural gas pipeline seen as crucial to revitalising Putin’s stalling economy. While both sides said a general understanding on the pipeline had been reached, key details and a timetable for the vast project were not announced.
Russia and China have been in talks for years over the pipeline, which would bring gas to China via Mongolia from Russia's natural gas heartland in northern Siberia, as pricing and other issues remain elusive.
Both Mr Xi and Putin also criticised the US over the expiry of the last remaining treaty restricting the size of the US and Russian nuclear arsenals, which lapsed in February with Mr Trump failing to respond to Moscow's proposal to extend the limits by a year.
For Mr Xi, the summit concluded a significant diplomatic week, during which he aimed to position China as a pillar of stability in a world increasingly destabilised by trade wars and military conflicts, from Iran to Ukraine.
But unlike his previous summit with Mr Trump, which focused on managing tensions between the world's two most powerful countries, the meeting with Putin posed a different challenge: how to demonstrate progress in a relationship already proclaimed "without limits" by both sides.
The joint statement also condemned attempts to approach global affairs with the "law of the jungle", in what appeared to be a criticism of Mr Trump’s aggressive foreign policy.
"The global situation is becoming more complex," they said in a declaration released by the Kremlin in Russian. "The global peace and development agenda is facing new risks and challenges, and there is a danger of fragmentation of the international community and a return to the 'law of the jungle'."
"Attempts by a number of states to unilaterally manage global affairs, impose their interests on the entire world, and limit the sovereign development of other countries, in the spirit of the colonial era, have failed."
Moscow had signalled ahead of the visit that it was seeking further energy agreements with China, the largest buyer of Russian oil, including pipeline supplies and sea-borne shipments.
During Putin's last visit in September 2025, Russian gas giant Gazprom said both sides had agreed to move forward with Power of Siberia 2, a 2,600km pipeline to carry 50 billion cubic metres of gas per year from Russia to China via Mongolia.
China has said very little publicly about the project. While Mr Xi said on Wednesday that cooperation in energy and resource connectivity should be the "ballast stone" in China-Russia relations, he did not mention the pipeline.
The visit was seen as particularly important for Putin, who is facing growing domestic backlash to his four-year-old war in Ukraine.
In recent weeks, Kyiv has launched a series of drone attacks on Moscow, prompting security fears in the Russian capital and forcing the Kremlin to pare back its plans for its annual military parade.
Putin’s army is struggling to make progress on the battlefield, with only minimal gains made despite a major spring offensive.
Last month, the Russian president claimed – without evidence – that the war was coming to an end.