Putin in China for summit with Xi
Presidents Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping are bolstering the relationship of their countries
Daily TribunePresidents Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping are bolstering the relationship of their countries
Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in China on Tuesday to meet his "dear friend" Xi Jinping on the sidelines of a Beijing-hosted trade and infrastructure forum.
Putin is the top guest in this week's Belt and Road Initiative event to be attended by representatives from 130 countries.
During Putin's meeting with Xi on Wednesday, the two will also discuss international and regional issues, including the Israel-Hamas war, the Kremlin said.
Putin and Xi will discuss the countries' ties "in their entirety" when they meet this week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.
The United States has asked China to use its influence to help de-escalate the war, which has seen more than a million people in the blockaded Gaza Strip flee their homes under the relentless bombardment that Israel launched in retaliation for the Hamas attacks from 7 October that killed more than 1,400 people in Israel, mostly civilians.
While the BRI forum provides a fresh opportunity for Putin and Xi to showcase their alliance, experts do not expect any new major agreements to be announced.
"Russia is aware that China doesn't want to sign any high publicity deals," Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, told Agence France-Presse.
Meanwhile, Xi also held a summit Tuesday with Chilean and Kazakhstan Presidents Gabriel Boric and Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Chinese state media reported. He then met Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban and the prime ministers of Papua New Guinea and Ethiopia.
The two nations share a symbiotic alliance, with China appreciating Russia's role as a bulwark against the West, and Moscow increasingly reliant on Beijing's largesse in trade and geopolitical backing.
