Putin Begins Visit in China Underscoring Ties Amid Ukraine War, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict 

Russia's President Vladimir Putin arrives at Beijing Capital International Airport to attend the Third Belt and Road Forum in Beijing on October 17, 2023. (AFP)
Russia's President Vladimir Putin arrives at Beijing Capital International Airport to attend the Third Belt and Road Forum in Beijing on October 17, 2023. (AFP)
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Putin Begins Visit in China Underscoring Ties Amid Ukraine War, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict 

Russia's President Vladimir Putin arrives at Beijing Capital International Airport to attend the Third Belt and Road Forum in Beijing on October 17, 2023. (AFP)
Russia's President Vladimir Putin arrives at Beijing Capital International Airport to attend the Third Belt and Road Forum in Beijing on October 17, 2023. (AFP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Beijing on Tuesday for a visit that underscores China’s support for Moscow during its war in Ukraine as well as Russian backing for China's bid to expand its economic and diplomatic influence abroad.

The two countries have forged an informal alliance against the United States and other democratic nations that is now complicated by the Israel-Hamas war. China has sought to balance its ties with Israel against its relations with Iran and Syria, two countries that are strongly backed by Russia and with which China has forged ties for economic reasons as well as to challenge Washington's influence in the Middle East.

Putin's plane was met by an honor guard as the Russian leader began his visit that is also a show of support for Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s signature “Belt and Road” initiative to build infrastructure and expand China’s overseas influence.

In an interview to Chinese state media, Putin praised the massive but loosely linked BRI projects.

“Yes, we see that some people consider it an attempt by the People’s Republic of China to put someone under its thumb, but we see otherwise, we just see desire for cooperation,” he told state broadcaster CCTV, according to a transcript released by the Kremlin on Monday.

Putin will be among the highest profile guests at a gathering marking the 10th anniversary of Xi’s announcement of the BRI project, which has laden countries such as Zambia and Sri Lanka with heavy debt from contracts with Chinese companies to build roads, airports and other public works they could not otherwise afford. UN Secretary-General António Guterres has praised the Chinese policy as bringing development to neglected areas.

Asked by reporters Friday about his visit, Putin said it would encompass talks on Belt and Road-related projects, which he said Moscow wants to link with efforts by an economic alliance of former Soviet Union nations mostly located in Central Asia to “achieve common development goals.”

He also downplayed the impact of China’s economic influence in a region that Russia has long considered its backyard and where it has worked to maintain political and military clout.

“We don’t have any contradictions here, on the contrary, there is a certain synergy,” Putin said.

Putin said he and Xi would also discuss growing economic ties between Moscow and Beijing in energy, high-tech and financial industries. China has also grown in importance as an export destination for Russia.

Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, said that from China’s view, “Russia is a safe neighbor that is friendly, that is a source of cheap raw materials, that’s a support for Chinese initiatives on the global stage and that’s also a source of military technologies, some of those that China doesn’t have.”

“For Russia, China is its lifeline, economic lifeline in its brutal repression against Ukraine,” Gabuev told The Associated Press.

“It’s the major market for Russian commodities, it’s a country that provides its currency and payment system to settle Russia’s trade with the outside world — with China itself, but also with many other countries, and is also the major source of sophisticated technological imports, including dual-use goods that go into the Russian military machine.”

Gabuev said that while Moscow and Beijing will be unlikely to forge a full-fledged military alliance, their defense cooperation will grow.

“Both countries are self-sufficient in terms of security and they benefit from partnering, but neither really requires a security guarantee from the other. And they preach strategic autonomy,” he said.

“There will be no military alliance, but there will be closer military cooperation, more interoperability, more cooperation on projecting force together, including in places like the Arctic and more joint effort to develop a missile defense that makes the US nuclear planning and planning of the US and its allies in Asia and in Europe more complicated,” he added.

The Chinese and Soviets were Cold War rivals for influence among left-leaning states, but China and Russia have since partnered in the economic, military and diplomatic spheres.

Just weeks before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last February, Putin met with Xi in Beijing and the sides signed an agreement pledging a “no-limits” relationship. Beijing’s attempts to present itself as a neutral peace broker in Russia’s war on Ukraine have been widely dismissed by the international community.

Xi visited Moscow in March as part of a flurry of exchanges between the countries. China has condemned international sanctions imposed on Russia, but hasn’t directly addressed an arrest warrant issued for Putin by the International Criminal Court on charges of alleged involvement in the abductions of thousands of children from Ukraine.



Man Suspected of Killing French Mosque Worshipper Surrenders to Police in Italy

A protestor holds a sign reading "Islamophobia, Muslims in danger" during a gathering in tribute to Aboubakar, the worshipper killed in a mosque at La Grand Combe, and against Islamophobia, at the Place de la Republique in Paris on April 27, 2025. (Photo by Alain JOCARD / AFP)
A protestor holds a sign reading "Islamophobia, Muslims in danger" during a gathering in tribute to Aboubakar, the worshipper killed in a mosque at La Grand Combe, and against Islamophobia, at the Place de la Republique in Paris on April 27, 2025. (Photo by Alain JOCARD / AFP)
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Man Suspected of Killing French Mosque Worshipper Surrenders to Police in Italy

A protestor holds a sign reading "Islamophobia, Muslims in danger" during a gathering in tribute to Aboubakar, the worshipper killed in a mosque at La Grand Combe, and against Islamophobia, at the Place de la Republique in Paris on April 27, 2025. (Photo by Alain JOCARD / AFP)
A protestor holds a sign reading "Islamophobia, Muslims in danger" during a gathering in tribute to Aboubakar, the worshipper killed in a mosque at La Grand Combe, and against Islamophobia, at the Place de la Republique in Paris on April 27, 2025. (Photo by Alain JOCARD / AFP)

A man suspected of killing a Muslim worshipper in a French mosque has turned himself in to police in Italy, authorities said Monday.
French police began searching for the suspect after the attack Friday in the former mining town of La Grand Combe in southern France. The assailant recorded the attack on his phone, and security camera footage showed him shouting insults at God, local media said.
The French interior minister’s office said Monday that the suspect had surrendered to police in Italy, without elaborating.
Local prosecutor Abdelkrim Grini said Sunday that investigators are taking into account “the possibility that this was an Islamophobic act. It’s the one we’re working on first, but it’s not the only one,” he said.
The suspect is a man born in France in 2004, who lived in the area and did not have a criminal record, The Associated Press quoted the prosecutor as saying.
“Racism and hatred based on religion will never have a place in France,” French President Emmanuel Macron said. “Religious freedom is inviolable.”
The Grand Mosque of Paris condemned the attack in a statement and said the victim, a young man identified only as Aboubakar in French media, had just finished cleaning the mosque when he was killed.
A march was held Sunday at La Grand Combe in support of the victim and a gathering against anti-Islam crimes was held in Paris.