Russian president Vladimir Putin has met Xi Jinping for the start of a summit in Beijing, just days after a similar visit by US president Donald Trump.
Putin and Xi will meet to discuss key international issues during talks over tea that officials characterised as an intimate tete-a-tete between "old friends".
Russia said it had "serious expectations" for the visit, and that it will include the signing of a 47-page document making various commitments about Russia-China relations.
After landing last night in China, Putin was greeted by foreign minister Wang Yi and an honour guard alongside Chinese youths waving China and Russia's national flags.
Earlier, China outright denied Xi had told Trump that Putin might come to regret invading Ukraine – reports that had threatened to overshadow the Russian leader's visit.
Foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun told a reporter: “The information you mentioned does not match the facts and is completely fabricated out of thin air.”
40 documents, tea session: What to expect from Putin's meeting with Xi today
Russian president Vladimir Putin is accompanied by a delegation including deputy prime ministers, ministers and heads of state corporations and major banks.
Putin and Xi will likely seek to display the so-called "no limits" partnership between China and Russia as strengthened since the West imposed sanctions to punish Russia for the war in Ukraine.
- The Kremlin has set "serious expectations" for Putin's visit, which, alongside talks, will include a signing ceremony and a banquet followed by a tea where the two leaders will discuss key international issues in an informal setting.
- Some 40 documents are expected to be signed and a 47-page joint statement on their strengthening partnership will be issued, according to the Kremlin.
- Putin and Xi are also expected to adopt a joint declaration on establishing a multipolar world order and a "new type of international relations", a Kremlin aide said.
- Negotiations on the Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline, which is due to link Russia to northern China, are also likely to be on the cards, industry experts said.
- Energy supply shortages linked to the conflict in Iran may back Russia's case for the pipeline as a long-term gas source, but Beijing may want to stick to its supply diversification strategy.
Arpan Rai20 May 2026 04:03
Russia considers joint projects with US and China, says Kremlin official
Russia is considering the possibility of joint projects with the United States and China, Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, Russia's sovereign wealth fund, was quoted as saying by state media this morning.
In a few hours, Russian president Vladimir Putin will meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing, days after Xi had talks with US president Donald Trump.
"Within the framework of the Russian Direct Investment Fund we are also looking at certain projects, including those involving both China and the US", Dmitriev, Putin's special envoy and a key figure in talks between Moscow and Washington, said.
Arpan Rai20 May 2026 03:56
Ukraine is Europe's 'number one priority', says top EU military chief
The European Union’s top military general Sean Clancy has said that Ukraine remains its top priority on Tuesday.
“The extraordinary resilience of the Ukrainian armed forces and the Ukrainian people has transformed Ukraine into a fortress nation,” Clancy told Euro News arguing that Ukraine’s security is now “integral to the future security of Europe.”
He said Ukraine remains the EU’s “number one priority”.
Alex Croft20 May 2026 03:00
Alex Croft20 May 2026 02:00
Russian lawmaker urges end to conflict as country cannot sustain war
Renat Suleimanov, a Russian lawmaker and state Duma representing the country’s Communist party has called for “the quickest possible end” to the country’s war with Ukraine.
“It is absolutely obvious that the economy will not withstand a prolonged continuation of the special military operation,” Suleimanov said to Kontinent using the Kremlin’s term for the war.
“Officially, 40 per cent of the federal budget is defense and security. What kind of development, investments, and capital expenditures can we talk about?”
He said that the war “has already lasted longer than the Great Patriotic War (World War II)“ and said that “the quickest possible end” to the conflict was “simply necessary.”
Alex Croft20 May 2026 01:01
US remains committed to Poland, says Polish minister after Hegseth call
The process of redeploying US military forces and assets in Europe is underway, but no decision has been made to reduce the US military capabilities in Poland, Polish defence minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz wrote on Tuesday on X.
"The U.S. Secretary of War confirmed that the United States' commitment to Poland's defence and security remains unchanged," he also wrote after his conversation with Pete Hegseth.
Alex Croft20 May 2026 00:01
Russia warns Latvia against letting Ukraine launch drones and draws sharp US rebuke
Russia's ambassador to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzya, on Tuesday said Moscow had information that Ukraine planned to launch military drones from Latvia and other Baltic states, warning that membership in NATO would not protect those countries from retaliation.
Nebenzya, speaking during a UN Security Council meeting on security in Ukraine, claimed Kyiv had already dispatched Ukrainian drone forces to Latvia.
Latvia's envoy to the Security Council, Sanita Pavluta-Deslandes, immediately rejected the remarks as "pure fiction." Tammy Bruce, the deputy U.S. ambassador to the UN, warned that the UN was "no place for threats against a council member" and said the U.S. would keep all its NATO commitments.
Alex Croft19 May 2026 23:01
Analysis: Putin let his desperation show with unexpected claim his war with Ukraine is ending
Pausing, turning and pointing, like hounds catching a new scent, Europe’s leaders are picking up a blood trail from the Kremlin. Vladimir Putin’s forces were once the hunters – now they are bleeding and Ukraine has the whiff of victory in its nose.
In the latest sign that Ukraine’s systematic new policy of trying to kill at least 50,000 Russians a month is working, Putin has told his people that the end of the war he started is near.
And, in an act that was both desperate and doomed, he suggested that Gerhard Schröder, the former German chancellor, could act as Europe’s envoy in talks.
The Independent’s world affairs editor Sam Kiley reports:
Maira Butt19 May 2026 22:00
Russia begins massive nuclear drills involving missiles and submarines as Putin visits China
Russia has begun massive manoeuvres of its nuclear forces, including practice launches of nuclear-capable ballistic and cruise missiles, following a surge in Ukrainian drone strikes.
The three-day exercise will involve 64,000 troops, over 200 missile launchers, more than 140 aircraft, 73 surface warships and 13 submarines, including eight armed with nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles, the Defence Ministry said.
According to the ministry, the drills will focus on the "preparation and use of nuclear forces under the threat of aggression."
James C Reynolds reports:
Maira Butt19 May 2026 20:00
Russians realise they aren’t safe as Ukrainian drone attacks on Moscow bring war close to home
It’s getting harder for officials in the Kremlin to cast the war in Ukraine – now in its fifth year – as something so distant that it doesn’t affect the daily routines of Russian civilians.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky cast the attack in Moscow’s suburbs as a just retribution for the relentless and deadly Russian missile and drone strikes on the capital of Kyiv and other cities last week.
Read the full story below
Maira Butt19 May 2026 19:00