Xi and Putin Sign Deals, Call for Iran Ceasefire After Trump Visit

Beijing — China's President Xi Jinping and Russia's Vladimir Putin met Wednesday in Beijing, just days after President Trump left the Chinese capital.

The two leaders signed a series of agreements on trade, media and energy. They also extended their treaty of friendly cooperation and said relations between their countries were at an unprecedentedly high level.

Xi described the ties as unyielding and warned of unilateral and hegemonic countercurrents running rampant in the international system. Putin invited Xi to visit Russia next year and said he planned to attend the APEC summit in Shenzhen in November.

Xi told Putin that the Middle East was at a critical juncture and called for an early end to the conflict in Iran. He said a comprehensive ceasefire was of utmost urgency and that resuming hostilities was inadvisable.

The two sides stressed the need for dialogue and negotiations in a joint statement released by the Kremlin. Putin described the energy sector as the locomotive of economic cooperation and said Russia would remain a reliable supplier of resources to China.

The Kremlin said there had been no breakthrough on the proposed Power of Siberia 2 natural gas pipeline. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the two sides had reached a basic understanding on the route and construction but that there was still no clear timeline.

The two leaders agreed that a solution to the root causes of the Ukraine conflict was needed. They said they supported the search for a solution through dialogue and negotiations. The joint statement said Russia welcomed China's aspiration to play a constructive role in resolving the Ukrainian crisis by political and diplomatic means.