China and Russia issued a joint statement on Wednesday after the Xi-Putin meeting, jointly condemning U.S. President Trump’s “American Iron Dome” missile defense plan and Washington’s “irresponsible” nuclear policy, while the gas pipeline agreement long anticipated by Russia remains unresolved.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a joint statement after the summit, highlighting Xi’s attempt to establish a stable and constructive relationship with U.S. President Trump. However, there are fundamental differences between Xi and Trump on key issues, whereas China and Russia’s positions remain highly aligned.
The statement pointed out that Trump’s “American Iron Dome” program threatens global strategic stability, and criticized Washington for allowing a key treaty limiting the U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals to expire. This treaty expired in February of this year, and at that time Trump did not respond to Moscow’s proposal to extend the limit on missiles and nuclear warheads for another year.
Some members of the U.S. political establishment believe that this could hinder America’s counterbalance to China’s nuclear development. Nevertheless, even though the leaders of China and Russia are united on global security issues and Putin enjoyed high-level hospitality from Xi Jinping, he was unable to secure the China–Russia gas pipeline agreement.
Russia has long hoped to double its total natural gas exports to China by building an entirely new gas pipeline.