Putin Ally Turns to China To Balance Reliance on Russia

President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus, the long-time ally of Vladimir Putin, has turned to Chinese leader Xi Jinping for the second time this year in a bid to diversify his country's lopsided alliance with Russia.

Lukashenko's second trip to Beijing since late February was dubbed a "working visit," according to Belarusian state media. Xi received him at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in China's capital, where they sat for a three-hour "working lunch."

Lukashenko, who has been in power in Minsk for nearly three decades, is attempting to court his Chinese counterpart after his full-throated backing for Putin's invasion of Ukraine—and his decision to allow Russia to launch offenses from Belarusian territory—left Belarus isolated by the international community and its economy heavily sanctioned.

Crucially, Belarus remains reliant on neighboring Russia for trade, with Xi's China offering one of the few meaningful alternatives for potentially robust economic relations.

"Belarus was, is and will be a reliable partner for China. I think no one in China needs to be convinced of this. All this has happened before my eyes over the past 30 years," Lukashenko told Xi on Monday, according to a readout released by his office.

The Belarusian leader also praised Xi's centerpiece Belt and Road Initiative, through which developing nations have received generous loans from Chinese state-backed banks for major infrastructure projects in the past decade. He criticized Western countries for attempting to fragment global cooperation, the statement said.

In return, Xi said Beijing and Minsk were "important forces participating in the reform and construction of the global governance system," according to China's official news agency Xinhua.

The Chinese president also said Beijing "opposes external interference" in Belarus' internal affairs, the state media readout said.

Lukashenko's apparent eagerness to balance its dependence on the Kremlin—with Xi's help—is tricky for Beijing, too. Despite their own disparity in economic heft, China still counts Russia as its only major quasi-ally in its long-term rivalry with the West in general and the United States in particular.

Additionally, the Chinese leader continues to tread a careful line on the Russia-Ukraine war; Beijing has argued for nearly two years that it takes no sides in the conflict and has hosted both Putin and Lukashenko for high-profile visits in that period.

In their talks, Lukashenko and Xi discussed the conflict in Ukraine, Xinhua said without elaborating.

Before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, China was Belarus' seventh-largest trading partner and second-largest import partner, according to U.N. Comtrade data. However, the trade was still considerably less than Belarus' imports from Russia.

Bilateral trade deals inked by Beijing and Minsk have nonetheless led to a steady rise in the movement of goods and services in both directions, resulting in an 83.6 percent year-on-year increase in the first three quarters of 2023, worth a total of $6.45 billion, according to a report on Tuesday by China's state-run China Daily newspaper.

"These are different visits. And what pleases me most are the visits that are related to production, trade and economic relations," Lukashenko told Xi.

Near the top of both leaders' lists are projects like the $6 billion China-Belarus Industrial Park, according to Xinhua. It promises to create Belarus' largest special economic zone in Belarus, measuring around 43 square miles, to boost industrial cooperation and investment.