The red carpet at Beijing Capital International Airport has had something of a workout in recent months. In addition to Donald Trump’s visit from May 13-15 and Vladimir Putin over the past couple of days, a parade of world leaders, including five out of seven G7 leaders, has made the trip to Beijing to visit the Chinese president, Xi Jinping.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, arrives on Friday and Serbia’s president, Aleksandar Vučić, is scheduled to begin a four-day visit on Sunday May 24.

In terms of diplomacy, at the moment all roads appear to lead to Xi Jinping.

Putin, specifically, has made more than 20 trips to see the leader he called his “dear friend” (Xi reciprocated by calling Putin his “old friend”, read into that what you will). The pair made all the customary noises you’d expect, talking up the notions of their “partnership”, “mutual respect”, “friendship” and “trust”.

But when it came down to it, writes Stefan Wolff, professor of international security at the University of Birmingham, Putin left without the one thing he really wanted: the finalisation of a deal around the Power of Siberia 2 pipeline. Once built, this will enable Russia to sell up to 50 billion cubic metres of natural gas from its arctic fields directly to China.

This is a big deal for Russia, given the sanctions on its oil trade as a result of the war in Ukraine.

Overall, Putin’s trip reinforced what has becoming ever clearer over the past few years. That China’s vision of a new order is not tripartite and does not involve Putin’s Russia as equal partner.........

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