BEIJING/MOSCOW, May 18: After US President Donald Trump, China will host Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the talks will focus on strategic partnership and global issues. Putin is scheduled to visit China on May 19-20 at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping.
During the two-day visit, Putin and Xi are expected to hold talks focusing on bilateral relations as well as other key international issues. Putin is also scheduled to meet Chinese Premier Li Qiang. Both the leaders had signed a “no limits” strategic partnership in February 2022.
Ahead of the Russian President’s trip, Xi and Putin exchanged “congratulatory letters” on Sunday. The messages came just days after a high-profile visit by US President Donald Trump to China, which ended four days earlier.
In remarks carried by Chinese state media, Xi said cooperation between China and Russia has “continuously deepened and solidified,” noting that this year marks the 30th anniversary of their strategic partnership.
An article published in state media tabloid the Global Times said the visits of the US and Russian presidents showed Beijing was “fast emerging as the focal point of global diplomacy”.
“The tightly sequenced visits have sparked widespread attention, with analysts noting that it is extremely rare in the post-cold war era for a country to host the leaders of the US and Russia back-to-back within a week,” the Global Times said.
China’s deepened relationship with Russia has been a cause for concern in the West, particularly since Moscow launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. China’s economic and diplomatic support for Russia since then has helped to sustain the conflict.
Both the leaders have met on more than 40 occasions. Meanwhile, bilateral trade between China and Russia has surged since 2022, with China now accounting for more than a quarter of Russian exports. Chinese purchases of Russian crude oil alone have generated hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue for Moscow, according to estimates from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, which places total fossil fuel purchases since the invasion at over $367 billion.
The purchases have supported China’s energy security, which has become especially important since the crisis in the Middle East stopped the shipping of oil through the strait of Hormuz.
Russia has been pushing China to move forward with the “Power of Siberia 2” gas pipeline that would add 50bn cubic metres of capacity to the existing network between the two countries.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said that ties between China and Russia are an essential component to maintaining global strategic stability and international justice,
“Cooperation between China and Russia in all areas continues to expand, bringing tangible benefits to both countries and their peoples, as well as making a significant contribution to ensuring global strategic stability and international justice,” Guo Jiakun said.
The countries’ relations are developing in a healthy and stable way, the spokesman added. (UNI)
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