Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping signed a joint declaration in Beijing on 20 May on building a "multipolar world," The Moscow Times reported. The text, published by the Kremlin press service, was signed alongside around 40 other documents and a 47-page joint statement on the strengthening of the partnership.
Putin's visit to China began on 19 May, marking 30 years since the founding of the Russia-China strategic partnership and coming days after President Donald Trump's own visit to Beijing.
The declaration's principles are sweeping: respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all states, equal and respectful inter-state relations, and inadmissibility of expanding military alliances and waging "hybrid wars" or "proxy wars".
Many of these principles are being violated by Russia itself at the moment of signing.
Long-term state of polycentricity: what does declaration say?
The text frames the current international moment in colonial-era terms: efforts by "a number of countries to unilaterally run global affairs, impose their interests on the entire world and limit the opportunities for sovereign development of other countries in the spirit of the era of colonialism have failed."
It argues that the world has entered a "long-term state of polycentricity." Russia, in language included in the joint statement, "appreciates China's objective position on the Ukrainian conflict" and welcomes "the desire to play a constructive role in the settlement."
The principles enumerated for the proposed "more just and rational system of global governance" include attention to "rational security concerns" of all states, and the proposition that "no state or group of states should control international affairs, dispose of the destinies of other countries, or monopolize opportunities for development."
Where do the principles meet conduct?
Russia is in the fourth year of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine that began in 2022, holds occupied parts of Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson Oblasts. Meanwhile, Ukraine says Russia has at least five scenarios to expand its offensive to the Chernihiv–Kyiv axis or against a NATO member state from Belarusian territory, Euromaidan Press reported.
The 2022 invasion was framed by Putin himself at the time as a "denazification" and "demilitarization" of Ukraine — an explicit denial of the principle in the declaration that every sovereign state's chosen path and development model must be respected.
China asserts sovereignty over Taiwan, which it has not controlled since 1949, and claims contested portions of the South China Sea, a claim a UN-backed arbitration tribunal in 2016 found had no legal basis under the Law of the Sea.
The declaration condemns "expansion of military alliances," "hybrid wars," and "proxy wars." Reuters reported on Monday that three European intelligence agencies and documents the agency reviewed indicate China secretly trained about 200 Russian military personnel on Chinese soil in late 2025, with some returning to fight in Ukraine.
The European Commission President said that Russia and Belarus bear "direct responsibility" for drone incursions threatening EU eastern-flank populations — incursions over which the Latvian government resigned last week.
