Devika Bhat

Whereas Xi has described relations in a much more neutral way as unyielding.

So, you know, there's an acknowledgement there that this is a very close relationship.

As we sort of discussed before, they, you know, have considered each other and have said openly that they are friends before.

And there's certainly a kind of warmth there that you don't necessarily see in other relations that both of those countries have with other countries.

But nonetheless, the relationship has shifted and it does feel like China is trying to play a game where it is positioning itself.

depending on what could be for its advantage at this moment, rather than tying its mask to Russia and saying that that is a relationship it wants to pursue at cost to all others, because that's definitely not the case anymore.

not least because of the sanctions, which means that on the battlefield things are not going as well as it would have hoped.

And that's just had this massive impact on the economy.

The trade relationship, the economic relationship is not equal.

It's very uneven.

And so Russia really needs China.

And there's an opportunity here with the war in Iran.

China has faced big problems in terms of energy supplies because of the sort of holdups in the Strait of Hormuz.

And so there's an opportunity here for Russia, which feels like Putin would really want to seek to increase that relationship on the energy front with China, get China more reliant on Russian energy supplies.

And that could be a boon for its economy at a time it really needs it.

Well, this comes back to your point earlier about the sort of hypocrisy of both countries talking about kind of wanting stability in the world order.

China's position on the war has always, in terms of its public stance, has been very much it is a neutral player.

And it's released these really kind of carefully caveated statements about wanting peace and the world order to be maintained.

But behind the scenes, we know that it has supported Russia in many ways, diplomatically, you know, through state visits such as this one, and also economically with all these deals that are going on.

The countries have had joint military exercises together.