The president of China Xi Jinping left Moscow this morning after a two-day trip to Russia focused on strengthening relations with his counterpart Vladimir Putin, Russian news agencies reported.

Xi’s plane took off from Moscow’s Vnukovo airport after a military guard saluted and the national anthems of Russia and China were played, RIA Novosti news agency reported.

Yesterday, Russia and China issued a joint statement in which they said that the close partnership between them they do not recommend a “military-political alliance”.

In particular, in the announcement after the summit meeting of Presidents Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, it is underlined that “the relations between Russia and China, although they do not constitute a military-political alliance similar to the one created during the Cold War, are more than a transnational cooperation”.

These relations “do not constitute an alliance, do not have the nature of confrontation and are not directed against other countries”, it is clarified in the same announcement.