Putin, Xi hold talks, sign 14 agreements

MOSCOW - Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, tried to project a sense of unity and normalcy on Tuesday during the second day of Mr. Xi's grand state visit, which included the signing of 14 agreements.

After talks with Mr. Putin in the Kremlin, Xi said that we signed a statement on deepening the strategic partnership and bilateral ties. He said that his conversations with the Russian leader were frank, friendly and rich in results. Alexander Gabuev, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, described the agreements as pretty thin. He said they were mostly incremental updates to arrangements that both parties agreed to prior to the summit, including an addendum to a 1997 agreement calling for regular meetings between the leaders of China and Russia and an agreement about a nuclear power plant that Russia is already building in China. The two countries agreed to cooperate in the field of the joint production of television programs.