Xi and Putin condemn Golden Dome at Beijing summit

Xi and Putin Condemn Trump’s Golden Dome at Beijing Summit

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin used a high-profile summit in Beijing on Wednesday to jointly condemn the United States’ Golden Dome missile defense program, calling it “an obvious threat to strategic stability” and warning that it risked turning outer space into a theater of war.

A Joint Rebuke After Pomp and Pageantry

Putin was welcomed at the Great Hall of the People with an honor guard and gun salute as children waved Chinese and Russian flags, according to Reuters. The ceremony preceded the release of a sweeping 9,935-word joint statement that touched on nuclear security, Taiwan, and even wildlife conservation.reuters

At the heart of the document was a pointed broadside against the Golden Dome, Trump’s plan for a ground- and space-based missile interceptor system. The two leaders said the project “aims to build an unlimited, multi-level, multi-sphere, and global missile defence system to destroy all types of missiles, including all types of ‘peer adversaries’ missiles, at all stages of their flight and before they are launched”. They argued that such plans “completely contradict the key principle of maintaining strategic stability, which requires the interconnectedness of strategic offensive and strategic defensive weapons”.wtaq

Arms Control and Nuclear Tensions

Beyond the Golden Dome, Xi and Putin criticized what they called Washington’s “irresponsible policy” for allowing the 2010 New START arms control treaty to expire without a replacement earlier this year. Russia also publicly backed China’s position against joining any potential U.S.-Russian nuclear arms control negotiations. The statement further warned that unnamed nuclear powers had plans to forward-deploy ground-based intermediate-range missiles, and that doctrines envisioning “preemptive or preventive missile strikes in order to decapitate and disarm the enemy” were “highly destabilising”.wtaq

The summit took place just days after Xi hosted Trump in Beijing for a visit focused on trade and investment, placing Moscow’s visit in direct diplomatic contrast with Washington’s.thediplomat

Partnership at a “Historic High”

The two leaders presided over the signing of roughly 40 agreements spanning trade, technology, energy, and media cooperation, according to the Associated Press. Discussions also covered the long-delayed Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline intended to link Russia to northern China. Putin described the relationship as having reached an “unprecedented level,” with both nations pledging mutual support on sovereignty and national unity. No single breakthrough deal was announced, but the breadth of the agenda underscored what both governments now characterize as a comprehensive strategic partnership aimed at building a multipolar world order.reuters

On the same day, Russia released footage of troops loading nuclear warheads onto mobile Iskander-M missile systems as part of a nuclear exercise spanning Russia and Belarus — a reminder that the rhetorical sparring over missile defense carries real-world stakes.wtaq