Russian President Vladimir Putin concluded his visit to Asia with a flashy show of support from authoritarian allies, pledges of eternal brotherhood from North Korea, and claims of movement on a lucrative pipeline project with China.
The images of Chinese leader Xi Jinping, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Putin - the first time they had ever been together - marked a significant propaganda victory for all three leaders in a show of defiance against United States global power.
Kim, who has been one of Russia’s most visible backers in its war against Ukraine, promised to do “everything possible to assist” Russia in a warm exchange with Putin, saying he considered it his “fraternal obligation” to help Moscow.
Putin, in turn, praised the heroism of North Korean soldiers who helped repel Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region.
The pair last met when the Russian leader visited Pyongyang last summer - his first visit to the country in 24 years - where the two nations signed a historic mutual defence treaty.
It was the first time the reclusive Kim, who rarely leaves his own country, attended a major, international multilateral event.
Before the meeting, Kim and Putin flanked Xi at an impressive military parade marking the 80th anniversary of China’s defeat of imperial Japan and the end of World War II.
At a news conference afterwards, Putin claimed that Russia and China had reached a “consensus” on the Power of Siberia 2 pipeline.
It is a long-delayed project that would transit gas reserves in Russia’s West Siberia to northern China via eastern Mongolia, handing Beijing more options to hedge against future reliance on US liquefied natural gas.
Putin has long sought to enlist China as a larger customer for Russia’s natural gas after Europe largely stopped buying it with the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and upheavals in the Middle East are putting pressure on the market.
Putin said today that Beijing would receive energy at market prices and that the supply of Russian gas through the new pipeline could reach 100 billion cubic metres.
“Well, finally, the negotiating parties have reached a consensus. There is no charity on either side. These are mutually beneficial agreements,” he said.
Beijing has yet to confirm the nature of the agreement, only promising to “actively promote their cross-border infrastructure and energy projects” with Russia and Mongolia.
Putin’s figures appeared to conflict with that of Alexei Miller, the chief executive of Russia’s state-owned energy giant Gazprom, who had told Russian news agencies yesterday that the pipeline would be able to provide half the amount Putin cited.
Questions have been raised over prices and the financing of the pipeline project, and experts see the “legally binding memorandum” signed between Beijing and Gazprom as more of a “map” rather than a commitment.
The photo opportunities and possible deals elicited an angry reaction from the White House.
In a post to Truth Social, US President Donald Trump said the three were meeting to “conspire against The United States of America”.
Russia quickly rejected Trump’s claims of conspiracy. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that “no one is plotting anything; no one has the desire or the time for that”. Putin later quipped that the US President had a “sense of humour”.
Later Trump said that he planned to talk to Putin “over the next few days”.
“I’m going to know exactly what’s happening,” Trump said, adding that if Putin makes decisions that make Washington unhappy, “you’ll see things happen”.
He also warned that he could go beyond what he described as secondary sanctions on India for its purchasing of Russian oil, a 25% tariff on imports of Indian goods into the US.
“I haven’t done phase two yet or phase three,” Trump said.
The meeting, nonetheless, did suggest the failure of one of Trump’s policy priorities: drawing Russia away from China’s orbit, said Alexander Gabuev, the director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Centre, calling those efforts little more than “a fantasy land”.
There was a marked difference, he added, between the Beijing parade and the atmosphere at Trump and Putin’s Alaska summit - which ended early and unceremoniously, with lunch cancelled and zero results.
Gabuev said that most of the results in Beijing would remain “invisible” for now.
Publicised documents and statements, including the potential plan for Power of Siberia 2, had little substance, he said.
“But judging from the presence of certain people in the room including military and banking leaders, important discussions - on military co-operation, exchange of technologies and how to strategise around Trump’s tariffs - certainly took place,” Gabuev said.
The message from Beijing was clear, he said.
“The world is much bigger than the West, and if the West doesn’t wish to engage, the rest of the world moves on,” he said.
Following the military parade, Kim and Putin travelled together in the same limousine - the way Putin did with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi two days earlier - to Beijing’s state guesthouse for their private talks.
Putin concluded the meeting by embracing the North Korean leader and audibly inviting him to visit Moscow. The Kremlin later confirmed Kim’s acceptance of the invitation but said a date has not yet been confirmed.
North Korea has sent around 15,000 soldiers to Russia since last year, according to South Korean estimates. Seoul assesses that 2000 of those soldiers were killed. Since 2022, Pyongyang has also provided Moscow with ballistic missiles and artillery to further its war against Ukraine.
Analysts say Kim’s main interest in meeting Putin would be finding out how the two nations can continue their military partnership.
The longer Putin’s war continues and the more intense it becomes, analysts say, the more North Korea stands to gain from the co-operation, which has made Kim and his country unusually relevant because it has been supplying weapons and troops to support Putin.
Kim also wouldn’t want to rely too much on Russia, and his presence in China indicates he may be hedging between the two nations, both of which have helped sustain the Kim regime since its founding.
“Eventually, North Korea will need investment and economic support from China,” its biggest trading partner by far, said Rachel Minyoung Lee, a North Korea expert at the Washington-based Stimson Centre.
“North Korea is not going to want to be overly dependent on Russia,” Lee said.
- Michelle Ye Hee Lee, Michael Birnbaum, Lyric Li and Natasha Abbakumova contributed to this report.
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