MOSCOW 17 Mar (Online): Chinese President Xi Jinping will be in Russia next week for a state visit after he was invited by President Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin said on Friday.<\/p>\n
The two-day trip beginning on Monday comes as Beijing offers to broker peace in Ukraine, an effort that has been met with scepticism in the West given China\u2019s diplomatic support for Russia.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring the talks, they will discuss topical issues of further development of comprehensive partnership relations and strategic cooperation between Russia and China,\u201d the Kremlin said.<\/p>\n
\u201cA number of important bilateral documents will be signed,\u201d it added.
\nChina and Russia struck a \u201cno limits\u201d partnership in February 2022, when Putin was visiting Beijing for the opening of the Winter Olympics, weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine.<\/p>\n
The two sides have since continued to reaffirm the strength of their ties. <\/p>\n
Trade between the two countries has soared since the invasion, and China is Russia\u2019s biggest buyer of oil, a key source of revenue for Moscow.
\nBut in recent weeks, China has been trying to play mediator between Russia and Ukraine.<\/p>\n
On February 24, exactly a year after Russia invaded Ukraine, China released a 12-point position paper on the war, in which it called for a ceasefire and talks between the two parties.<\/p>\n
Earlier this week, Beijing also offered to mediate between Russia and Ukraine on the Black Sea grain deal, which is due to be extended.<\/p>\n
And on Thursday, in a rare phone conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart, China\u2019s foreign minister said Beijing is concerned about the year-old grinding conflict spinning out of control and urged talks on a political solution with Moscow.<\/p>\n
Qin Gang told Dmytro Kuleba that China has \u201calways upheld an objective and fair stance on the Ukraine issue, has committed itself to promoting peace and advancing negotiations and calls on the international community to create conditions for peace talks\u201d, China\u2019s foreign ministry said in a statement posted on its website.<\/p>\n
Kuleba later tweeted that he and Qin \u201cdiscussed the significance of the principle of territorial integrity\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI underscored the importance of [Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy\u2019s] Peace Formula for ending the aggression and restoring just peace in Ukraine,\u201d wrote Kuleba, who spoke the same day with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MOSCOW 17 Mar (Online): Chinese President Xi Jinping will be in Russia next week for a state visit after he was invited by President Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin said on Friday. The two-day trip beginning on Monday comes as Beijing offers to broker peace in […]<\/p>\n
\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72280,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-world-news"],"yoast_head":"\n