Ties with Beijing underscored in Putin remarks

MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that relations between Russia and China are a crucial factor for global stability at an annual news conference.

"The development of Russia-China relations is progressing steadily and consistently," Putin said when answering a question from China's Xinhua News Agency.

Putin said that Russia and China have carried out practical cooperation in various fields.

According to information released by China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, China-Russia trade reached $244.8 billion in 2024, marking a 1.9 percent year-on-year increase.

Putin added that the cooperation between the two nations has also developed in high-tech manufacturing, science and education, culture and people-to-people exchanges, and space exploration, which precisely reflects the high level of mutual trust between the two countries.

"All of this indicates that, as I have emphasized many times, the Russia-China relationship is a crucial factor for global stability," Putin said.

"The Russian side is willing to continue to develop relations with Chinese friends in the future," he added.

The annual event, which Putin has held in different formats since 2001, drew about 3 million questions from Russians via phone, text and online platforms. An artificial intelligence system processed the queries to identify common themes.

On the domestic economy, Putin said a sharp slowdown to 1 percent growth this year, from 4.3 percent in 2024, was the result of the central bank's conscious actions to bring down inflation.

Putin said that over the last three years, the overall GDP growth reached 9.7 percent. He added that the country's unemployment rate was at a record low of 2.2 percent in 2025.

He also stressed that Russian authorities will strive to increase Russians' salaries.

"Of course, we will work to raise wage levels and ensure that incomes, especially the incomes of families with children, do not decline," Putin said.

"Everything should, in general, revolve around the family, and that is exactly what we are striving to do," Putin added.

In the opening moments of his conference, Putin set out the Kremlin's stance on the conflict with Ukraine.

Putin said that the "ball" to end the conflict in Ukraine was in the West's and Kyiv's court, and accused the European Union of attempting "daylight robbery" of Russian assets.

"The ball is entirely and fully on the court of the head of the Kyiv regime and its European sponsors," Putin said.

He added that he did not see readiness on the Ukrainian side to agree to a peace deal, but there were "certain signals" it was willing to engage in dialogue.

Putin was speaking hours after European Union leaders set aside a plan to use frozen Russian assets as backing for a loan to Ukraine, deciding instead to borrow cash to help fund Kyiv's defense against Russia for the next two years.

The EU leaders said they reserved the right to use Russian assets to repay the loan if Moscow fails to pay reparations to Ukraine.

Putin said the bloc had backed away from the original scheme because it would have faced serious repercussions, and had damaged its status as a safe place to store assets.

After nearly four years, the conflict stands at a delicate juncture as US President Donald Trump pushes for a peace deal on terms that Ukraine and its European allies fear will be slanted toward Russia.

Russia says it is waiting to hear from Washington how its draft peace proposals have been modified following consultations between the United States, Ukraine and the Europeans.

AGENCIES—XINHUA