{"id":14837,"date":"2023-04-19T00:50:35","date_gmt":"2023-04-18T22:50:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/?p=14837"},"modified":"2023-04-19T01:13:16","modified_gmt":"2023-04-18T23:13:16","slug":"chinas-defense-minister-li-meets-with-russian-president-putin-and-defense-minister-shoigu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/chinas-defense-minister-li-meets-with-russian-president-putin-and-defense-minister-shoigu\/","title":{"rendered":"China\u2019s Defense Minister Li meets with Russian President Putin and Defense Minister Shoigu"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>During his recent visit to Moscow, China\u2019s Defense Minister Li Shangfu held meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Shoigu. The meeting comes less than a month after Chinese President Xi Jinping\u2019s three-day visit to Moscow.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During these meetings in the Kremlin, Li Shangfu and Vladimir Putin hailed their country\u2019s military ties. Li is on his first overseas trip since taking office last month. His trip to Moscow comes at are significant time as the Western leaders are towards China to resolve ongoing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/Russia-Ukraine-Conflict\/\"><span style=\"color:#ac0707\" class=\"has-inline-color\">Russia-Ukraine war<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis is my first overseas visit since taking over as China\u2019s defense minister. I specifically chose Russia for this in order to emphasize the special nature and strategic importance of our bilateral ties,\u201d Li said during his meeting with the Russian President. Russia\u2019s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu was also present at the table during the meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the statement released by China\u2019s Ministry of Defense, during his meeting with the Russian president, Li said that China is willing to work with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/tag\/russia\"><span style=\"color:#ac0707\" class=\"has-inline-color\">Russia<\/span><\/a> to \u201cfurther strengthen strategic communication between the two militaries.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Li\u2019s meeting with the Russian president came as a surprise to many observers, as Beijing had announced Li\u2019s visit to Moscow last week, saying he would meet defense officials, but made no mention of a meeting with Putin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We are working actively through our military departments, regularly exchange useful information, work together in the field of military-technical cooperation, and hold joint exercises,&#8221; Putin said during the meeting. &#8220;Undoubtedly, this is another crucial area that strengthens the extremely trusting, strategic nature of our relations,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu also held a one-on-one meeting with his Chinese counterpart. He said that \u201cThe coordination of our efforts in the international arena has a stabilizing effect on the situation in the world, and helps to reduce the potential for conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/China-Defense-Minister-Li-with-Russian-Defense-Minister-Shoigu.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1016\" height=\"672\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/China-Defense-Minister-Li-with-Russian-Defense-Minister-Shoigu.jpg?resize=1016%2C672&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-14839\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/China-Defense-Minister-Li-with-Russian-Defense-Minister-Shoigu.jpg?resize=1024%2C677&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/China-Defense-Minister-Li-with-Russian-Defense-Minister-Shoigu.jpg?resize=300%2C198&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/China-Defense-Minister-Li-with-Russian-Defense-Minister-Shoigu.jpg?resize=768%2C508&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/China-Defense-Minister-Li-with-Russian-Defense-Minister-Shoigu.jpg?w=1210&amp;ssl=1 1210w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1016px) 100vw, 1016px\" \/><\/a><figcaption><em><sup>Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chinese Defence Minister Li Shangfu attend a meeting in Moscow, Russia, on April 18, 2023. (Image Credit: Russian Defence Ministry\/via Reuters)<\/sup><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Russia&#8217;s Shoigu also congratulated Li on his appointment as defense minister. Shoigu said that the newly appointed Chinese Defense Minister Li&#8217;s experience would contribute to the development of the Chinese military and the expansion of military cooperation between Moscow and Beijing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Li is a senior military general from the People\u2019s Liberation Army (PLA) and a veteran of <span style=\"color:#ac0707\" class=\"has-inline-color\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/tag\/china\">China<\/a><\/span>\u2019s military modernization drive. He is also a member of the Chinese Communist Party\u2019s Central Military Commission, which controls the military in practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Before taking responsibility as the country\u2019s defense minister, he led PLA\u2019s Equipment Development Department. He was the figurehead of China\u2019s weapons transactions with Russia. Li was&nbsp;sanctioned by the United States&nbsp;in 2018 for carrying out transactions with Russia\u2019s state-controlled arms exporter Rosoboronexport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The most prominent transactions under Li included Russia\u2019s delivery to China of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/tag\/su-35\/\"><span style=\"color:#ac0707\" class=\"has-inline-color\">Su-35 combat aircraft<\/span><\/a> in 2017 and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/tag\/s-400\/\"><span style=\"color:#ac0707\" class=\"has-inline-color\">S-400 surface-to-air missile<\/span><\/a> system-related equipment in 2018.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>China\u2019s Defense Minister Li Shangfu met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Shoigu, less than a month after Chinese President Xi Jinping\u2019s three-day visit to Moscow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14838,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[124,62,1],"tags":[137,380,45,6,357,401,20,607,592],"class_list":["post-14837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-europe","category-news","tag-asia","tag-asia-pacific","tag-china","tag-defense","tag-europe","tag-putin","tag-russia","tag-s-400","tag-su-35"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/China-Russia-defense-ministers-Putin-meeting.jpg?fit=690%2C370&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7jJWb-3Rj","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14837"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14837\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14847,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14837\/revisions\/14847"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}