China Welcomes Putin’s India Visit, Backs Strong Trilateral Ties

China responded favourably to Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to India on Monday, portraying the three nations as a vital component of the Global South and stating that, in addition to their own national interests, strong trilateral ties promote regional and global peace and stability.

“China, Russia and India are emerging economies and important members of the Global South,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun told a media briefing here, reacting for the first time to Putin’s high-profile visit to New Delhi last week and his interactions with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

According to Guo, the three nations' good relations are beneficial to regional and global peace, security, stability, and prosperity in addition to serving their own interests. Given Beijing's extensive and robust relations with Moscow, Putin's visit was widely followed here.

In response to a query regarding Putin's remarks regarding Beijing and New Delhi before his visit, Guo stated that China is prepared to collaborate with Russia and India in order to further advance the growth of bilateral ties.

In an interview ahead of his visit, Putin had said, “India and China are our closest friends - we treasure that relationship deeply." On India-China relations -- currently on a path of normalisation after the Eastern Ladakh confrontation, which resulted in a freeze in ties from 2020 until last year -- Guo said China wants to promote sustained and strong ties with New Delhi with a long-term perspective.  China stands ready to work with India to view and handle bilateral relations from a strategic height and a long-term perspective, promote sustained, strong and steady development of ties to benefit the two countries and their peoples, and make a due contribution to peace and prosperity in Asia and beyond, he said.

In the interview with an Indian news channel, Putin not only referred to Beijing and New Delhi as Moscow's close friends, but he also expressed confidence that the leaders of China and India are dedicated to resolving their differences and that Russia has "no right" to meddle in their bilateral affairs. Putin's remarks regarding India-China relations were emphasised by Chinese official media.

His comments disputing US allegations on India's procurement of Russian oil were published by the state-run Xinhua news agency.

China, for its part, is the main buyer of Russian gas and oil, and it has refused US demands to stop supplies to punish Moscow for carrying out its war in Ukraine.

From December 4-5, Putin travelled to India. He hadn't been to India since 2021.

During his visit, a host of agreements were signed to boost trade and economic ties between the two countries. Both sides also worked out an Economic Cooperation Programme to increase trade volume to USD 100 billion by 2030.