(Moscow) Chinese leader Xi Jinping will make an official visit to Russia from May 7 to 10, confirmed the Kremlin on Sunday.
Posted at 6:19 p.m.
He is among the leaders who will attend the victory day Parade in Moscow on May 9.
The Kremlin indicated that Mr. Xi had been invited by Russian President Vladimir Putin and that, in addition to participation in victory day celebrations, leaders would discuss “the continuation of the development of global partnership and strategic interaction relations” and “questions on the international and regional agenda”.
The two men will also sign a number of bilateral documents.
Mr. Xi’s visit to Russia will be the third since the Kremlin sent troops to Ukraine in February 2022.
China claims to adopt a neutral position in the conflict, but it supported the claims of the Kremlin according to which the action of Russia was caused by the West, and it continues to provide key components that Moscow needs for the production of weapons.
Mr. Xi’s last visit to Russia dates back to September 2024, during a BRICS summit, a group of developing savings. He also visited a state visit to Russia in March 2023 and Mr. Putin returned to him by making his own trip to China in October of the same year.
Since then, the two leaders have also met in Beijing in May 2024, where Mr. Putin made the first trip abroad of his fifth presidential term, and to Kazakhstan in July.
After launching what the Kremlin persists in calling a “special military operation” in Ukraine, Russia has become increasingly dependent on China on the economic level, Western sanctions cut it to a large part of the international trade system.
The increase in trade between China and Russia has enabled the latter to alleviate some of the most serious consequences of sanctions.
Moscow has diverted most of its energy exports to China and relied on Chinese companies to import high -tech components intended for Russian military industries in order to bypass Western sanctions.
The leaders of Russia and China have established close personal ties that have helped to strengthen relations between Moscow and Beijing.
Moscow accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday of threatening the security of the dignitaries participating in the celebrations of the Victory Day, after having rejected the 72-hour unilateral cease-fire decreed by Russia.
Zelensky said that Ukraine could not provide security guarantees to foreign representatives who planned to go to Russia around May 9, warning that Moscow could organize provocations and then try to reject the fault on Ukraine.
