Devika Bhat

This is The Guardian.

It's almost Xi trying to show he can meet the world's top leaders whenever he likes.

Everyone sort of wants a piece of him.

There's no doubt that Beijing is really revelling in this now that China is having this moment on the sort of diplomatic stage.

China definitely has the upper hand on this occasion.

And I think both parties know that.

Xi knows that.

Putin knows that.

Yeah, thanks for having me, Lucy.

Yes, as you say, Trump was there just last week.

And this visit has come hot off the heels of that, probably much to Trump's chagrin, I'd suspect.

And yes, the optics and the theatre of it feels very, very similar.

So, you know...

There's been the honor guard and a gun salute, which Trump got to, cheering children, you know, waving, in this case, Russian and Chinese flags, a marching band.

And, you know, alongside the kind of formal talks and the sort of handshakes, there's going to be background discussions behind the scenes, which, again, we sort of saw with the Trump visit.

You know, and the optics will be watched especially closely for this sort of compare and contrast opportunity it gives us.

Yes, I think so.

So yeah, it's absolutely the case that unlike Trump and Xi, this is a kind of really historic relationship that goes back for years and years, and they share a lot in common.

They're both sort of autocratic strongmen who've managed to maintain power for years and years.

Again, you know, one suspects Trump might look on that quite jealously.