For Xi, the visit is a diplomatic tightrope.
China has released a 12-point proposal to solve the Ukraine crisis, but at the same time strengthened ties with Moscow.
China has repeatedly dismissed Western accusations that it is planning to arm Russia but says it wants a closer energy partnership after boosting imports of Russian coal, gas and oil following Putin’s all-out invasion of Ukraine. Western sanctions on Russian energy mean Beijing has saved billions of dollars.
Xi and Putin will have an “informal” one-on-one meeting and dinner on Monday before negotiations on Tuesday, Putin’s top foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov told Russian news agencies.
They will sign an accord “on strengthening (the two countries’) comprehensive partnership and strategic relations entering a new era”, the Kremlin has said, as well as a joint declaration on Russian-Chinese economic cooperation until 2030.
Xi wrote in an article published in Russia that the two countries adhered to the concept of “eternal friendship and mutually beneficial cooperation” and that China’s Ukraine peace proposal, released last month, reflects global views.
“Complex problems do not have simple solutions,” Xi wrote in Rossiiskaya Gazeta, a daily published by the Russian government, according to a Reuters translation from Russian.
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