KAZAN, Russia

Chinese President Xi Jinping told Russia's Vladimir Putin that the international situation was gripped by chaos but that Beijing's strategic partnership with Moscow was a force for stability amid the most significant changes seen in a century.

In May, Xi and Putin pledged a "new era" of partnership between the two most powerful rivals of the United States, which they cast as an aggressive Cold War hegemon sowing chaos across the world.

> "At present, the world is going through changes unseen in a hundred years, the international situation is intertwined with chaos," Xi told Putin in Kazan at the opening of the BRICS summit.

> "But I firmly believe that the friendship between China and Russia will continue for generations, and great countries’ responsibility to their people will not change."

Russia, waging war against NATO-supplied Ukrainian forces, and China, under pressure from a concerted U.S. effort to counter its growing military and economic strength, increasingly have found common geopolitical cause.

Both nations, pushing back against perceived humiliations of the 1991 Soviet collapse and centuries of European colonial dominance, have sought to portray the West as decadent and in decline.

The United States casts China as its biggest competitor and Russia as its biggest nation-state threat, with President Joe Biden claiming democracies face a challenge from autocracies like China and Russia.

> Biden has referred to Xi as a "dictator" and has described Putin as a "killer" and even a "crazy SOB". Beijing and Moscow have responded with criticism of Biden's comments.

Putin called Xi "dear friend" and stated that the partnership with China was a stabilizing force in the world.

> "Russian-Chinese cooperation in world affairs is one of the main stabilising factors on the world stage," Putin said.
> "We intend to further enhance coordination on all multilateral platforms in order to ensure global security and a just world order."

Xi noted that cooperation in the BRICS group was "the most important platform for solidarity and cooperation between emerging market countries and developing countries in the world today," emphasizing it as a main force in promoting global multipolarity and inclusive economic globalization.