Russia and China warn of ‘law of the jungle’ in world affairs

Published : Wednesday, 20 May, 2026 at 8:19 PM Count : 12

China and Russia on Wednesday warned of fragmentation of the international community and a drift back toward the “law of the jungle” amid new risks and challenges posed most visibly by the US.

In a joint statement, Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin condemned US President Donald Trump's Golden Dome missile defence shield plans and Washington's "irresponsible" nuclear policy.

The statement said Trump's plan for a ground- and space-based missile interceptor system posed a threat to global strategic stability.

It also criticised the United States over the expiry of the last remaining treaty restricting the size of the US and Russian nuclear arsenals, which lapsed in February with Trump failing to respond to Moscow's proposal to extend the limits by a year.

China and Russia also pledged to strengthen comprehensive strategic coordination further and backed a declaration advocating multi-polarity in the world order.

The statement was part of a joint summit hosted in Beijing, a week after Xi hosted Trump in the Chinese capital.

Xi and Putin, who have met more than 40 times, both stressed the closeness of the Russia-China ties that they sealed in 2022 with the signing of a strategic partnership treaty, less than three weeks before Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

For Xi, it capped a remarkable week of diplomacy in which he has set out to showcase China as a pillar of stability in a world rocked by trade wars and military conflicts in Iran and Ukraine.

While the summit with Trump was largely about 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 that the two sides have already proclaimed is "without limits".

But there was no apparent breakthrough on a massive new natural gas pipeline, the Power of Siberia 2, that the two sides have been discussing for years.

Moscow keen to press ahead with pipeline

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 2,600-km (1,616-mile) pipeline to carry 50 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas per year from Russia to China via Mongolia.

China has said very little publicly about the project. While 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.

Key issues such as gas pricing remain unresolved, and analysts expect negotiations could take years.

The Kremlin said both sides reached a "general understanding on the parameters" of the project, although no details or clear timeline were agreed.

Honour guard and gun salute

Xi welcomed Putin with an honour guard and a gun salute at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, as children waved Chinese and Russian flags.

Xi said the countries should focus on long-term strategy and promote a "more just and reasonable" global governance system, according to Chinese state news agency Xinhua.

"China-Russia relations have reached this level because we have been able to deepen political mutual trust and strategic cooperation," Xi said at the start of his meeting with Putin. Putin said after the talks that Russian-Chinese ties had "reached a truly unprecedented level and continue to develop."

FP/MI