Russian President Vladimir Putin will travel to Beijing in October for talks with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, Russian Security Council Secretary Mykola Patrushev said on Tuesday, Interfax cites.
This will be the first known trip of the Russian leader abroad after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant for his arrest, Reuters and Agerpres note.
“In October, we expect in-depth bilateral talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing,” Patrushev said at a meeting in Moscow with Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
The West’s attempt to restrain both Russia and China should deepen cooperation between the two states, Mykola Patrushev believes.
Putin will attend the third Belt and Road Forum, Beijing’s giant project to restore the ancient Silk Road, after being invited by Xi Jinping during his official visit to Moscow in March.
Just a few days before Xi’s visit to Moscow, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin on suspicion of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine. Moscow rejects the accusations.
The Kremlin said that the warrant is proof of the West’s hostility to Russia, and therefore initiated a criminal case against the ICC prosecutor and the judges who issued the warrant.
“Comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation” between Russia and China
Patrushev, a close ally of Putin, said that “Russia is committed to the progressive development and strengthening of Russian-Chinese relations,” adding that the two countries have a “comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation.”
Wang Yi met on Tuesday in Moscow with Mykola Patrushev to discuss strategic security issues, Russian officials said, reports EFE.
According to the Security Council of the Russian Federation, this is already the 18th round of consultations of this kind between the Russian and Chinese parties.
Previous Russian-Chinese negotiations on strategic security took place in September last year in China.
At the same time, Patrushev and Wang continued to meet in other formats, and in July of this year they met on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Johannesburg, where they discussed the deepening of Russian-Chinese cooperation and interaction in multilateral formats.
In addition, the parties exchanged views on the situation in the Asia-Pacific region, which they intended to discuss during today’s meeting.
The day before, Wang also met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, to whom he confirmed China’s commitment to a peaceful approach in negotiations with Ukraine and Beijing’s readiness to play a “constructive role” in the political settlement of the conflict.
Lavrov emphasized the role of Russia as the rotating chairman of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and expressed his desire to cooperate with the Asian giant to intensify the development of this cooperation mechanism.
Wang’s visit to Moscow followed his meeting with US national security adviser Jake Sullivan in Malta, which the White House described as “sincere and constructive”, reports EFE.
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Source: Hot News
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