BEIJING: China’s leader Xi Jinping held back-to-back calls with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump this week, timing analysts said on Thursday was rare and significant as Beijing positions itself as a stable global power.
Here is what to know about the talks:
Why on the same day?
Xi’s video call with Putin on Wednesday afternoon was followed just hours later by a phone call with Trump.
“The timing of the call is rare and interesting. It is not common for Xi to have two calls with Putin and Trump,” George Chen, a partner at The Asia Group wrote in an online commentary.
Xi and Putin spoke for 1.5 hours, according to the Kremlin’s foreign policy aide, while Trump said they had a “long and thorough” conversation.
“It does demonstrate that Xi can hold court and easily pick up the phone to speak with the two ‘strong’ leaders of the world,” said Dylan Loh, an associate professor at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University.
Russia and the United States are two of the “most consequential” countries to China, Loh said, though he cautioned that the timing could have been “a simple scheduling issue.”
What was discussed?
Trump said he and Xi discussed trade, Russia’s war in Ukraine and Iran.
He also said that China had committed to increasing soybean purchases from the United States to 20 million tons in the current season.
The call confirmed that “in spite of what’s happened around the world, there is going to be a short-term tactical stabilization of US-China relations,” Loh said.
The purchase of soybeans, he said, is a “low-hanging fruit.”
On Taiwan, however, Xi warned Washington to exercise caution in arms sales to the self-ruled island, which Beijing claims as its own territory and has vowed to retake by force if necessary.
Taiwan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Chen Ming-chi told AFP that “we don’t worry too much about this whole telephone communication.”
“In fact, we believe that it will contribute to stabilize the situation,” he said.
Meanwhile, Xi and Putin hailed the strengthening of Chinese-Russian ties as they try to present a united front against the West.
The two countries have drawn closer since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, which left Moscow diplomatically isolated.
The calls took place as Russian, Ukrainian and US negotiators met in Abu Dhabi for a new round of talks on ending the almost four-year war.
Putin and Xi discussed their “opinions” on the United States, and “special attention was given to the tense situation in Iran,” the Kremlin said.
How important were the talks?
Xi is seeking to position himself as equidistant from Putin and Trump, Ho said.
“China is trying to seek international maneuver space to ensure that whatever happens globally, it does not get fenced into a corner,” he told AFP.
Domestically, China is reeling from a recent corruption probe into Zhang Youxia, a top military general in the People’s Liberation Army, which sent shockwaves through defense observers.
Analysts said that while Zhang’s investigation would likely not have been discussed with Putin and Trump, the timing of the calls could be a way for Xi to project confidence domestically.
Faced with uncertain and fragile domestic conditions, the “two-timing” calls were “probably for domestic posturing to demonstrate Xi’s political standing in the global theater,” Ho said.
What do the calls mean for ties?
Putin accepted invitations during the call to visit China in the first half of 2026, according to the Kremlin, while Trump said he was looking forward to his previously announced trip to Beijing in April.
Putin will also attend the APEC regional summit hosted by Xi in November.
The calls follow a slew of recent meetings between Xi and various leaders, as he seeks to present China as a stable alternative to Washington.
Some analysts cautioned that China-Russia relations “are not ironclad” while both Beijing and the mercurial Trump administration could yet make unattainable demands of each other.
Neither the US nor China will fully commit to Russia, as “both are primarily focused on stabilising their bilateral relationship,” said Yue Su at the Economist Intelligence Unit.
“Meaningful Chinese cooperation would likely require a very attractive deal from the US in exchange.”
Why did Xi hold back-to-back calls with Putin, Trump?
https://arab.news/mtpfu
Why did Xi hold back-to-back calls with Putin, Trump?
- The calls took place as Russian, Ukrainian and US negotiators met in Abu Dhabi for a new round of talks on ending the almost four-year war
Italian police fire tear gas as protesters clash near Winter Olympics hockey venue
- Police vans behind a temporary metal fence secured the road to the athletes’ village, but the protest veered away, continuing on a trajectory toward the Santagiulia venue
MILAN: Italian police fired tear gas and a water cannon at dozens of protesters who threw firecrackers and tried to access a highway near a Winter Olympics venue on Saturday.
The brief confrontation came at the end of a peaceful march by thousands against the environmental impact of the Games and the presence of US agents in Italy.
Police held off the violent demonstrators, who appeared to be trying to reach the Santagiulia Olympic ice hockey rink, after the skirmish. By then, the larger peaceful protest, including families with small children and students, had dispersed.
Earlier, a group of masked protesters had set off smoke bombs and firecrackers on a bridge overlooking a construction site about 800 meters (a half-mile) from the Olympic Village that’s housing around 1,500 athletes.
Police vans behind a temporary metal fence secured the road to the athletes’ village, but the protest veered away, continuing on a trajectory toward the Santagiulia venue. A heavy police presence guarded the entire route.
There was no indication that the protest and resulting road closure interfered with athletes’ transfers to their events, all on the outskirts of Milan.
The demonstration coincided with US Vice President JD Vance’s visit to Milan as head of the American delegation that attended the opening ceremony on Friday.
He and his family visited Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” closer to the city center, far from the protest, which also was against the deployment of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to provide security to the US delegation.
US Homeland Security Investigations, an ICE unit that focuses on cross-border crimes, frequently sends its officers to overseas events like the Olympics to assist with security. The ICE arm at the forefront of the immigration crackdown in the US is known as Enforcement and Removal Operations, and there is no indication its officers are being sent to Italy.
At the larger, peaceful demonstration, which police said numbered 10,000, people carried cardboard cutouts to represent trees felled to build the new bobsled run in Cortina. A group of dancers performed to beating drums. Music blasted from a truck leading the march, one a profanity-laced anti-ICE anthem.
“Let’s take back the cities and free the mountains,” read a banner by a group calling itself the Unsustainable Olympic Committee. Another group called the Association of Proletariat Excursionists organized the cutout trees.
“They bypassed the laws that usually are needed for major infrastructure project, citing urgency for the Games,” said protester Guido Maffioli, who expressed concern that the private entity organizing the Games would eventually pass on debt to Italian taxpayers.
Homemade signs read “Get out of the Games: Genocide States, Fascist Police and Polluting Sponsors,” the final one a reference to fossil fuel companies that are sponsors of the Games. One woman carried an artificial tree on her back decorated with the sign: “Infernal Olympics.”
The demonstration followed another last week when hundreds protested the deployment of ICE agents.
Like last week, demonstrators Saturday said they were opposed to ICE agents’ presence, despite official statements that a small number of agents from an investigative arm would be present in US diplomatic territory, and not operational on the streets.
