FILE - Chinese President Xi Jinping, left, and Russian President Vladimir Putin attend a group photo ceremony prior to Outreach/BRICS Plus format session at the BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia, Oct. 24, 2024. (Maxim Shipenkov, Pool Photo via AP, File)
FILE - Chinese President Xi Jinping, left, and Russian President Vladimir Putin attend a group photo ceremony prior to Outreach/BRICS Plus format session at the BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia, Oct. 24, 2024. (Maxim Shipenkov, Pool Photo via AP, File)
MOSCOW (AP) 鈥 Chinese leader Xi Jinping will pay an official visit to Russia from May 7鈥10, the Kremlin confirmed Sunday.
Xi was already among the leaders set to attend the Victory Day Parade in Moscow on May 9.
The Kremlin said Xi was visiting at the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin and, as well as taking part in Victory Day celebrations, the leaders would discuss 鈥渇urther development of relations of comprehensive partnership and strategic interaction鈥 and 鈥渋ssues on the international and regional agenda.鈥
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Putin and Xi will sign a number of bilateral documents, it said.
Xi鈥檚 visit to Russia will be his third since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin鈥檚 contentions that Russia鈥檚 action was provoked by the West, and it continues to needed by Moscow for weapons production.
Xi last visited Russia in September 2024 for a bloc of developing economies. He also paid a state visit to Russia in March 2023 and Putin reciprocated with his own trip to China in October that year. The two leaders have since also in May 2024, where Putin took the first foreign trip of his fifth presidential term, and in .
After launching what the Kremlin insists on calling a 鈥渟pecial military operation鈥 in Ukraine, Russia has become increasingly dependent economically on China as Western sanctions cut its access to much of the international trading system. China鈥檚 increased trade with Russia has helped the country mitigate some of the worst blows from the sanctions.
Moscow has diverted the bulk of its energy exports to China and relied on Chinese companies to import high-tech components for Russian military industries to circumvent Western sanctions.
The leaders of Russia and China have developed strong personal ties that helped boost the relations between Moscow and Beijing.
Moscow accused Ukrainian Saturday of attending Victory Day celebrations after he dismissed . Zelenskyy said that Ukraine cannot provide security assurances to foreign officials planning to visit Russia around May 9, warning that Moscow could stage provocations and later attempt to blame Ukraine.
