The Russian chief’s Might 16-17 go to goals to underscore the deepening ‘no limits’ partnership with China’s Xi Jinping.
Russian President Vladimir Putin will go to China this week, each international locations introduced, utilizing the primary overseas journey of his new six-year time period to underscore the deepening partnership with China’s Xi Jinping.
China and Russia declared a “no limits” partnership in February 2022 when Putin visited Beijing simply days earlier than he despatched tens of hundreds of troops into Ukraine.
“On the invitation of Chinese language President Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin can pay a state go to to China on Might 16-17 as his first overseas journey after taking workplace,” the Kremlin mentioned on Tuesday.
China’s Ministry of Overseas Affairs spokesperson Hua Chunying mentioned in an announcement that the 2 will focus on “bilateral ties, cooperation in numerous fields, and worldwide and regional problems with frequent curiosity”.
It will likely be Putin’s second go to in simply over six months to China, an financial lifeline for Russia after Western nations imposed sanctions over its navy offensive in Ukraine.
China has rebuffed Western criticism of its ties with Russia, however their financial partnership and navy cooperation have come underneath rising scrutiny within the West.
America’s newest punitive measures, introduced this month, focused greater than 280 entities of their newest effort to paralyse Russia’s navy and industrial capabilities, together with 20 corporations based mostly in China and Hong Kong.
US-China rivalry
The US casts China as its largest competitor and Russia as its largest nation-state menace whereas US President Joe Biden argues that this century can be outlined by an existential contest between democracies and autocracies.
Putin and Xi share a broad worldview, which sees the West as decadent and in decline simply as China challenges US supremacy in the whole lot from quantum computing and artificial biology to espionage and onerous navy energy.
Through the go to, Putin will meet Chinese language Premier Li Qiang to debate financial cooperation. Putin will even go to the northeastern metropolis of Harbin, which has sturdy ties to Russia, for a commerce and funding exposition.
Putin pivoted to China after the US and its allies tried to isolate Russia as punishment for the conflict in Ukraine.
China-Russian commerce hit a report of $240.1bn in 2023, up 26.3 p.c from a yr earlier, Chinese language customs knowledge reveals.
High crude oil provider
Russia has change into China’s high crude provider, with its oil shipments to China leaping greater than 24 p.c in 2023 regardless of Western sanctions.
The Kremlin mentioned the 2 leaders would “determine key areas for additional growth of Russian-Chinese language sensible cooperation” and would signal a joint assertion after the assembly.
Putin, 71, and Xi, 70, will participate in an occasion celebrating 75 years because the Soviet Union recognised the Folks’s Republic of China which was declared by Mao Zedong in 1949.
