Putin to Make State Visit to China 05/14 06:06
BEIJING (AP) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin will make a two-day state
visit to China this week, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Tuesday, in the
latest show of unity between the two authoritarian allies against the U.S.-led
Western liberal global order.
Putin will meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping during his visit starting on
Thurday, the ministry said, saying the two leaders would discuss "cooperation
in various fields of bilateral relations ... as well as international and
regional issues of common concern." No details were mentioned.
The Kremlin in a statement confirmed the trip and said Putin was going on
Xi's invitation. It said that this will be Putin's first foreign trip since he
was sworn in as president and began his fifth term in office.
China has backed Russia politically in the conflict in Ukraine and has
continued to export machine tools, electronics and other items seen as
contributing to the Russian war effort, without actually exporting weaponry.
China is also a major export market for energy supplies that keep the
Kremlin's coffers full.
China has sought to project itself as a neutral party in the conflict, but
has declared a "no limits" relationship with Russia in opposition to the West.
The sides have also held a series of joint military drills and China has
consistently opposed economic sanctions against Russia in response to its now
two-year-old campaign of conquest against Ukraine.
The two continent-sized authoritarian states are increasingly in dispute
with democracies and NATO while seeking to gain influence in Africa, the Middle
East and South America.
Putin's visit comes just days ahead of Monday's inauguration of William Lai
Ching-te as the next president of Taiwan, the self-governing island democracy
that China claims as its own territory and threatens to annex by force if
necessary.
Xi returned last week from a five-day visit to Europe, including stops in
Hungary and Serbia, countries viewed as close to Russia. The trip, Xi's first
to the continent in five years, was seen as an attempt to increase China's
influence and drive a wedge between the EU and NATO on one side, and a
yet-to-be-defined bloc of authoritarian nations on the other underpinned by
Chinese economic influence that has been wavering amid a housing crisis and
dramatically slower domestic economic growth.
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