Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi spent Tuesday in Moscow for a round of high-level discussions with senior Russian officials focused on “strategic security and military cooperation,” according to Russian and Chinese media.
His arrival in the Russian capital happened to coincide with a separate diplomatic mission by US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, who was expected to confer with President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin later that evening.
Wang was reported to have met with Sergei Shoigu, the Russian Security Council Secretary, and Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, to conduct “consultations on strategic security and military cooperation,” according to Russia’s Interfax.
The meeting took place as part of the 20th round of Russian-Chinese strategic security consultations and discussions are reported to have centred on deepening intelligence cooperation.
“I know that today is a particularly busy, tense and significant day for Russia and President Vladimir Putin and for you,” Wang is reported to have told Lavrov, in reference to the almost parallel talks between Witkoff and Putin.
The fact that Lavrov found time to meet him, he said, “indicates the high level of our relations and the high level of Russian-Chinese relations of comprehensive cooperation,” according to Russian state media.
The talks also came after Putin on Monday signed an executive decree temporarily lifting visa requirements for Chinese nationals, mirroring Beijing’s earlier decision to waive visas for Russian passport holders.
The reciprocal arrangement will take effect immediately and run to Sept. 14, 2026, permitting Chinese citizens to stay in Russia for up to 30 days for tourism or employment.
Wang also hailed Lavrov’s assessment that “the global situation has been becoming increasingly unpredictable, unstable and unclear this year.”
“But despite this and thanks to the strategic leadership by our Presidents Xi Jinping of China and Vladimir Putin of Russia, our relations, in spite of all problems and difficulties, are demonstrating a high level of development in all spheres,” he is reported to have said.
The timing of the talks placed them only hours ahead of the scheduled meeting between Putin and the American delegation. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had earlier said the engagement would begin at 5pm local time and run as long as necessary.
Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, will also attend the talks with Putin.
China’s Foreign Ministry said after the meeting that the two sides had agreed to “consolidate strategic mutual trust, deepen good-neighborliness, expand mutually beneficial cooperation, serve the respective economic development and national revitalization of the two countries, jointly respond to the endless new threats and challenges, and better maintain world fairness, justice, peace and stability.”
Meanwhile, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on its website that “considerable attention” had been paid in talks to ending the war in Ukraine “on the basis of eliminating the root causes of the conflict and taking due account of the fundamental interests of the Russian Federation, the situation in the Asia-Pacific region, as well as other topics of mutual interest.”
Kyiv has repeatedly accused Beijing of materially supporting Russia’s military campaign through supplying goods and equipment but Beijing has denied the claims, positioning itself as a potential peace broker.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said in April that Kyiv had obtained information that “representatives of China” have been “engaged in the production of some weapons on the territory of Russia.”
Ukraine has also accused China of supplying Russia with satellite intelligence used to target missile strikes on Ukraine, including sites tied to foreign investors.