00:01It's been less than a week since Donald Trump's visit to Beijing.
00:05And now it's Vladimir Putin's turn to land in the Chinese capital for a state meeting with Xi Jinping.
00:09And to see past the official agenda, you just have to look at the guest list.
00:13When the US president visited, he brought tech and finance executives.
00:17Putin's massive delegation, however, includes five deputy prime ministers,
00:21eight ministers, regional governors and the head of Russia's central bank.
00:26So what does this power play actually signal for Europe?
00:31For Russia, China has become a critical economic lifeline.
00:35With bilateral trade topping 200 billion dollars for three straight years,
00:40Moscow is structurally dependent on Beijing for industrial machinery, electronics and cars.
00:45And with major Russian banks cut off from Western financial systems,
00:49trade settlements in Chinese Yuan have exploded from less than 2% in 2022
00:53to almost 30 to 40% of Russia's total trade.
00:57And for China, Beijing is buying record amounts of discounted Russian oil.
01:03So over 100 million tons a year.
01:06And at the same time, she is pushing for a massive new gas pipeline called the power of Siberia too.
01:12And the maths is simple.
01:14The Chinese leader wants cheap Russian raw materials.
01:17But he cannot risk Western penalties blocking Chinese exports to valuable European markets.
01:23But hey, look at who else was on that plane.
01:26Notably, Kirill Dmitriev, so head of Russia's direct investment fund.
01:30And Kremlin's key negotiator with Washington, hoping to leverage China's diplomatic weight to win down the Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
01:39But for Beijing, it's all about the Taiwan cut.
01:42And by showing Washington how close it can get to Moscow,
01:45China is pressuring Trump to limit US multi-billion dollar arms sales to Taiwan.
01:50And you see, Putin and Xi have met more than 40 times and openly called each other old friends.
01:56So if Europe is just waiting for these two to retire, there is bad news.
02:01Last year, Hot Mike caught them discussing leaving until 150.
02:05So maybe that will be just enough time for Europe to finally decide on its stance.
02:10And if not, maybe to learn Mandarin.
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