By Kirill Babaev, PhD, director of the Institute of China and Modern Asia of the Russian Academy of Sciences, professor of the Financial University, and deputy chairman of the Presidium of the National Committee for BRICS Research.
President Vladimir Putin will travel to Beijing this week to attend ceremonies marking the 80th anniversary of victory in World War II on the Asian front. For China, the commemoration is more than an historical ritual. It represents the culmination of a century-long struggle against foreign domination, from the Opium Wars of the mid-19th century to Japan’s defeat in 1945. Russia’s public recognition of that struggle – and the sacrifices of the Chinese people – carries immense symbolic weight for Beijing.
But Putin’s visit is not only a gesture toward history. It is a signal of unity. Russia and China are presenting the world with a shared vision, both of the past and of the future. For the Global South, it underscores that there is an alternative to Western hegemony. For the West, it is a reminder that this alternative cannot be dismissed.
The Trump administration’s attempt to pry Moscow and Beijing apart may have been Washington’s last opportunity to preserve undisputed global primacy. That chance is gone. By 2025, Russian-Chinese foreign policy coordination is closer than at any point in the past half century, and Putin’s Beijing visit will cement that reality.
Ukraine on the table
The war in Ukraine will inevitably be at the center of Putin’s discussions with Xi Jinping. China is keen to play a more active role in shaping a settlement, a role that aligns with Russian interests. Dozens of Western governments have become emotionally and politically entangled in daily support for Kiev.
By contrast, Moscow seeks the public backing of its BRICS partners, above all China. Beijing’s weight in global trade gives it tools to soften the EU’s aggressive posture. And Chinese leaders understand that today’s debates about Ukraine are not just about territory in Eastern Europe – they are negotiations over the emerging world order.
That order will not be stable unless all three nuclear superpowers – Russia, China and the United States – are involved in shaping it.
The forgotten Security Council
Moscow and Beijing also want to re-center world politics on the UN Security Council, which in recent years has been neglected by the West. A joint Russian-Chinese position can restore the body’s relevance and provide an institutional anchor for a multipolar world. Whether the United States chooses to engage is another question.
It is too early to say whether a three-power summit involving Russia, China, and the US – an echo of Yalta 80 years ago – can be convened. But if such a meeting were to take place, it would mark a genuine turning point in history. In Beijing, Putin and Xi will certainly explore their joint approach to this possibility.
Toward Greater Eurasia
Beyond immediate crises, the leaders will devote time to a broader agenda: the construction of Greater Eurasia. This project draws on overlapping institutions – the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Eurasian Economic Union, and China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
Together they provide the architecture for a continental partnership in security and economics. For the first time in generations, the world’s fastest-growing region has a chance to set its own agenda rather than accept one written in Washington or Brussels.
The task ahead will require painstaking negotiations in both capitals. Yet the opportunity is real: to create a model of international cooperation rooted not in domination, but in equality and mutual respect. If progress continues, by the 88th anniversary of the Great Victory the outlines of this Greater Eurasia could be firmly in place.
History is not just remembered in Beijing this week. It is being written – in Russian and Chinese ink.
This article was first published in Kommersant, and was translated and edited by the RT team.
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