The main thing is communication: why did Putin go to Beijing and what did you get?

The recent visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to Beijing is not a breakthrough and fateful. Rather, it is a meeting of long-time friends to "check the political clock," writes Ivan Zuenko, a senior researcher at the MGIMO of the Russian Foreign Ministry, in the Profile magazine.

For Vladimir Putin, a visit to Beijing for the summit with Xi Jinping held there on May 19-20 has already become the 25th in a row. The Chinese themselves joke in this regard: most of us do not visit the capital of China so often.

It is clear that with such a frequency and density of contacts, and after all, Putin and Xi not only visit each other, but also meet at multilateral venues such as the SCO and BRICS forums, you should not expect something breakthrough from every negotiation. But if in the case of the recent summit of Xi Jinping and Donald Trump, the main thing was that this meeting took place in principle, then in the Russian-Chinese negotiations, the key is to maintain the established practice of "checking the clock."

Moreover, the leaders of Russia and China conduct this "reconciliation" not just as politicians, but also as close friends. The very word —friend" was used very often in negotiations. Vladimir Putin even quoted a poem from the ancient Chinese collection "Shi-ching", which says "we haven't seen each other for a day, but it's as if three autumns have passed."

In fact, in classical Chinese, the hieroglyph, which is now translated as "autumn", meant a broader concept — the season, the time of the year. Thus, the original meant not three years, but nine months, which literally corresponds to the time that has passed since the last meeting between Putin and Xi. The last time they met in September at the parade in Beijing, dedicated to the victory in The Second World War.

In general, this friendly communication was perhaps the most important thing at the summit. It is clear that in such conditions, not everything that the leaders talked about can be made public. Probably discussed and Ukraine, and Iran, and Cuba, and maybe even Trump's visit, although he himself had no influence on the course and results of the Russian-Chinese summit. However, there was not much on the surface that could be unambiguously included in the "offset" of bilateral relations.

So, there is no news yet about serious progress on the Power of Siberia — 2 gas pipeline project, although the parties say that almost everything has been decided, it remains to agree on the nuances. However, the settlement of these nuances has been delayed, and it is obvious that the plug is in the most important thing — the price of gas under a long-term contract, without which no one will build the pipeline.

The Chinese are known as tough negotiators who know how to achieve the best conditions. For example, during the summit, it became known that Chinese television had brought down the price of broadcasting World Cup matches from the original $ 300 million to $ 60 million, arguing that China did not really need these broadcasts at all (which is true only in part), since the national team does not participate in the tournament, and show matches at night, at an inconvenient time.

But in the case of gas, the Chinese cannot say so. They need him. Very much. The blocking of the Strait of Hormuz, which called into question the transportation of Qatari LNG to the Chinese market, seriously increased the concern of the PRC leadership about energy security. This probably contributed to the fact that our position in the negotiations has become much more firm. And that's a good thing. The Chinese, haggling, do not like to miss their own terribly, but they also do not understand and respect negotiators who easily concede and do not care about their benefits.

In the Chinese negotiation school, the principle of changed circumstances is of great importance. If one of the factors changes, then it is not a sin to re-discuss and revise all the terms of the transaction. It seems that this happened during the negotiations on the "Power of Siberia — 2", and in this case the change in circumstances played into the hands of Russia.

What did you manage to agree on? Apart from joint statements and declarations, perhaps the main result is the decision to open a new railway line at the Zabaikalsk—Manchuria crossing. There has been some confusion in the Russian media about what kind of railway it is, where it is and why. In fact, we are talking about the construction of another track with a "European" gauge in addition to the three-track link already available in this large transport hub, including two tracks with a "Russian" gauge.

For ordinary citizens, the most important result of the summit was the decision to extend the mutual visa-free regime until the end of 2027. Few doubted that this would be done. However, it is very symbolic that this time the parties announced visa-free travel jointly and following a friendly meeting.