Presidents Putin and Xi held a video call yesterday, in which they said their countries’ relationship was stronger than an alliancePresident Xi of China has pledged to support Russian demands for guarantees that Nato will not expand any further into eastern Europe, according to a Kremlin aide. The Russian and Chinese presidents vowed to defend one another’s interests against the US and its allies during a video call yesterday that underlined how the two countries’ shared suspicions of the West have brought them into closer alignment. SponsoredYuri Ushakov, 74, a foreign policy adviser to President Putin, said afterwards that Xi had said China and Russia now had a relationship that was stronger than an alliance. Russia has dispatched tens of thousands of troops to the vicinity of its border with Ukraine and threatened this week to station medium-range nuclear missiles in Europe unless Nato came

Source: The Times December 16, 2021 12:00 UTC