JAKARTA - Chinese President Xi Jinping made a series of phone calls to Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump in one day on Wednesday, February 4 local time.
Public policy expert and corporate strategy analyst from The Asia Group, George Chen, assessed that this event is rare. According to him, China has significantly positioned itself as a stable global power.
"This call time is rare and interesting. It is not common for Xi to make two calls with Putin and Trump," George said in an online comment quoted by AFP, Thursday, February 5.
Xi made the call with Putin on Wednesday afternoon followed by a phone call with Trump hours later.
According to the Kremlin's foreign policy aide, Xi and Putin spoke for 1.5 hours, while Trump said the two had a "long and thorough" conversation.
"This shows that Xi can lead and easily pick up the phone to talk to the world's two 'strong' leaders," said Dylan Loh, an associate professor at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
According to Loh, Russia and the United States (US) are the two countries that are "most influential" for China. Nevertheless, he warned that the time of the meeting could be a "simple scheduling problem."
What was discussed?
Trump said he and Xi discussed trade, Russia's war in Ukraine, and Iran.
He also said that China had committed to increasing its purchases of soybeans from the US to 20 million tons this season.
The conversation confirmed that "regardless of what has happened around the world, there will be short-term tactical stabilization in US-China relations," Loh said.
The purchase of soybeans, said Loh, is "an easy fruit to pick."
However, regarding Taiwan, Xi warned the US to be careful in selling weapons to the self-governing island, which China claims as its own territory and has promised to take back by force if necessary.
Taiwan's Deputy Foreign Minister Chen Ming-chi told AFP that "we are not too worried about the whole phone call."
"The fact is, we believe that it will contribute to stabilizing the situation," Ming-chi said.
Meanwhile, Xi and Putin praised the strengthening of China-Russia relations as they tried to present a united front against the West.
The two countries have grown closer since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, which has left Russia diplomatically isolated.
The phone call came as Russian, Ukrainian and US negotiators met in Abu Dhabi for a new round of talks on ending the nearly four-year-old war.
Putin and Xi discussed their "views" on the United States, and "special attention was paid to the tense situation in Iran," the Kremlin said.
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