China's President Xi Jinping had a call with Russia's President Vladimir Putin on Monday and said he was pleased with Moscow's efforts to hold a summit with the U.S. toward ending the war in Ukraine,

China pushed back against recent remarks by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, declaring that Washington could never "sow discord" in its ties with Moscow. Newsweek reached out to the White House and the Russian Foreign Ministry via email for comment.

A top security aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim as the Kremlin builds ties with Southeast Asian nations seeking to offset the risks of the growing competition between the US and China.

Weeks prior to Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the two reaffirmed the “no limits” partnership first mentioned by Beijing in 2021. Nato considers China a “decisive enabler” of the Kremlin’s war effort,

Russian leader expected to travel to Beijing for event marking 80 years since the end of World War II, according to sources.

Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Friday during a phone call, during which the leaders praised Moscow-Beijing ties as a stabilizing force in international affairs.

China and Russia “cannot be moved away” from one another, Chinese leader Xi Jinping told his counterpart Vladimir Putin Monday, in their first phone call since US President Donald Trump upended American foreign policy with a sweeping pivot toward Moscow as he pushes for peace in Ukraine.

Unlike Nixon and Kissinger’s gambit in the 1970s, the strategy threatens to divide the West.

President Donald Trump’s rapprochement with Russia has some experts suggesting he might be trying to do a “reverse Nixon” and isolate Beijing by courting Moscow.