and that message may be winning out. a planned rally here tonight has so far drawn only about 20 people. lester? garrett haake in new york. thank you. another major story this evening, chinese president xi jinping meeting with russia s vladimir putin in moscow today. a sign of deepening ties between the two countries as the u.s. expresses concerns china will give russia lethal aid to use in ukraine. here s keir simmons. reporter: tonight the images president putin has been waiting for. just days after the international criminal court accused the russian president of war crimes, a major show of support from the leader of the world s second largest superpower. president xi calling putin his dear friend. praising his firm leadership. predicting he ll win election next year. promising to discuss a chinese peace plan. the u.s. and ukraine on the sidelines. watching and warning the world that china may still send lethal weapons to russia and not to be fooled by proposals for a cease-fi
for alleged war crimes. 0ur russia editor steve rosenberg is in moscow following events. when xi jinping arrived, you could tell the russians were pleased to see him. full military honours for one of the world s most powerful leaders. but this was pomp with a purpose. russia knows it needs china more than ever. putin and xi have met many times before, but never before has russia s president being under such pressure. his war in ukraine has not been going to plan, and last week in the hague, the international criminal court issued an arrest warrant for vladimir putin for alleged war crimes. xi s visit is a show of support. the two leaders have been building what they call a no limits partnership. it s not an equal one, though. russia, under heavy international sanctions, is increasingly dependent
on china as a market for its goods and raw materials. as for no limits, well, there have been some. up till now, beijing has been reluctant to provide russia with lethal aid for the ukraine war, to avoid secondary sanctions against chinese companies. still, china is thought to be supplying dual use technology, like semiconductor chips, vitally important to the russian military. ahead of the summit, president putin went travelling himself, paying his first visit to territory occupied by russia in its full scale invasion of ukraine. he toured mariupol, a city that had been heavily damaged by russian shelling. his presence sent a clear message to ukraine and to the west this kremlin leader is not about to compromise. steve rosenberg, bbc news, moscow.
put relations back in the deep freeze in that time frame around easter. so when exactly the trip might be getting put back on, we have no idea. so a lost opportunity. and don t you think that had antony blinken continued on the trip that the talks would have been dominated by this discussion over this balloon rather than focusing on taiwan and other strategic issues? not necessarily. i mean, remember these talks are private. so officials can choose what issues they want to stress. obviously he was going to have to raise it. we should see it in a broader context which is that it was already going to be a difficult visit, there were concerns just in the last couple weeks about chinese support owned enterprises and the wagner group. there were discussions about possible visit by president xi jinping to see vladimir putin in moscow in the spring. and so secretary blinken was already going to have quite a few things that you and your colleagues would be asking him about to make statemen
this is bbc news. i m ben boulos, with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk, and around the world. the world s richest man, elon musk, buys twitter for $41; billion, putting free speech at the forefront of his plans, but there are fears over what shape this could take. no matter who owns or runs twitter, the president has long been concerned about the power of large social media platforms. the un secretary general antonio guterres meets vladimir putin in moscow later, as ukraine asks him to initiate a humanitarian corridor for civilians trapped in a steel plant in the city of mariupol. in russia, there are two huge explosions at an oil depot, not far from the border, with ukraine the russian foreign minister suggests