Beijing, May 17, 2024 – China and Russia strengthen the anti-US axis, linked by a common aversion to the Western democratic model. The Russian president Vladimir Putinafter a long day of meetings at Beijing, arrived “before dawn” in Harbin. The TASS, reports Tass, returned to yesterday’s meeting with Xi Jinping, reporting that in the face-to-face meeting there would also be talk of a possible truce in view of the Olympics. Lapidary Zelensky: “Ceasefire? It doesn’t work very well with this enemy. It seems like a dead story to me.”
Presidents Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping (Ansa)
The Chinese president, however, said that Beijing “supports the convening of an international peace conference recognized by Russia and Ukraine at the appropriate time with equal participation and fair discussion of all options.”
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2.47pm
Zelensky skeptical about ceasefire
Minutes after Tass beat the agency on Putin, Ukrainian President Zelensky intervenes about a possible Olympic truce. “We already had a ceasefire, but it doesn’t work very well with this enemy,” says the Ukrainian leader in a discussion with journalists. “Who will register that during the ceasefire their forces will not come closer to us? A ceasefire does not prevent military means from approaching and then launching an offensive. It seems like a dead story to me.”
2.27pm
Putin: “Discussed with Xi about a possible Olympic truce”
Putin said he had discussed a possible truce in Ukraine with Xi Jinping for the next Olympics. “Yes, Xi Jinping talked to me about it, we discussed the issue,” the tsar said, quoted by Tass. In talks recently held in Paris with French President Emmanuel Macron, Xi said that Beijing supports the idea of an Olympic truce.
06:19
Trump: “Together to do damage”
Former US President Donald Trump accused Xi and Putin of wanting to “do damage”. Speaking to reporters in New York after a day in court, Trump said: “President Xi of China I know well, and President of Russia Putin I know well. Right now, they’re together working on plans, where they combine, where they get together and do damage because ultimately that’s what they’re thinking about, doing damage.”
06:11
Kremlin advisor: Putin-Xi dialogue on Ukraine “face to face”
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed the issue of Ukraine in detail during face-to-face talks, Kremlin advisor Yuri Ushakov said, Ria Novosti reported. “In detail, the meeting” on Ukraine “took place face to face, not even in a narrow format, but face to face, when the president and our president spoke separately,” Ushakov told Rossiya 1.
06:09
Xi: “Peace conference if recognized by Moscow and Kiev”
China has a “coherent position” to promote the political solution of the Ukraine issue, which requires examining “symptoms” and “root causes”, and planning “the present and long-term future”. President Xi Jinping, in yesterday’s confidential meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin at Beijing’s Zhongnanhai, the citadel of the red elite a stone’s throw from Tiananmen Square, said that China “supports the convening of a peace conference international recognized by Russia and Ukraine at the appropriate time c
with equal participation and fair discussion of all options.”
06:06
Putin arrived in Harbin for the second day of his visit
Russian President Vladimir Putin, after a long day of meetings in Beijing, arrived “before dawn” in Harbin, a Chinese city located a few hundred kilometers from the border with Russia, long a key center for cross-border trade and cultural exchange. The Russian president will participate in the opening ceremony of the eighth edition of the Russia-China Expo and the Russian-Chinese Forum on interregional cooperation, the Tass agency reported, and will be accompanied by Han Zheng, vice president of China. Putin will also hold a press conference with Russian media later in the day.
