Putin, Xi aim Russia-China partnership against U.S.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping vaulted their growing partnership into a forward-leaning pact avowedly aimed at the U.S., opposing America’s global network of alliances and seeking to nudge it aside as the sole superpower.

Pointedly, in a break with the indirect pronouncements of past summits, their statement criticized the U.S. by name six times, taking issue with its alliances with Australia and others in Asia, and its arms-control and other policies. It also opposed any expansion by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization—a central demand from Russia in its standoff with the West over Ukraine.

The opposition to NATO marked China’s most explicit support to date of Russia in the confrontation and, international-affairs specialists said, showed Beijing’s ambition to have a say in European security and its closest alignment with Russia since the early years of the Communist bloc’s Cold War with the West.