March 22—Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping wrapped up two-days of intense summit meetings in Moscow on Wednesday, March 22, and announced a fruitful strengthening of their bilateral relationship on all fronts, along with a call for the international community to recognize that, “to settle the Ukraine crisis, the legitimate security concerns of all countries must be respected,” as their Joint Statement on strategic issues asserted. The two leaders stated that it was necessary to “update and improve the international security architecture,” and they specifically called for urgent consideration of China’s 12-point peace proposal for Ukraine.
