Chinese President Xi Jinping will travel to Russia on a state visit next week, his first trip to Russia since it invaded Ukraine, reported state media Xinhua. The agency said citing Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying that Chinese President Xi Jinping will pay a state visit to Russia from March 20 to 22 at the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The announcement was made on Friday.
Notably, this will be Xi’s first overseas trip since he won a third term as president earlier this month.
Chinese President Xi Jinping will pay a state visit to Russia from March 20 to 22 at the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying announced on Friday pic.twitter.com/Tad6WDFlrr
— China Xinhua News (@XHNews) March 17, 2023
The development comes days after it was reported that Xi would visit Russia to meet his counterpart Vladimir Putin after the latter invited him. According to a Jan 30 report from Russia’s Tass news agency, President Putin had invited Xi to visit the country in the spring.
The visit comes at a time when Russia and Ukraine are battling for Bakhmut and there seems no near end of the war even as it surpassed one year earlier last month. The United States has also raised eyebrows recently when it said that China might ‘aid’ Russia against Ukraine, a claim which China plainly rejected.
Notably, China recently offered to be a peace mediator in Ukraine. However, the attempt has been accepted well by the Western nations which have always raised doubt over China’s diplomatic ties with Russia.
China and Russia had struck a “no limits” partnership in February of 2022, a few weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine.
Earlier, Russia acknowledged China’s proposal for a political solution to the conflict in Ukraine, but said that the conditions for peace were not currently in place. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that Russia “paid a lot of attention to China’s plan”, but added that they “did not see any of the necessary conditions for peace at this time”, reported news agency AFP.
China has attempted to remain neutral in the conflict while maintaining a close relationship with its ally Russia. Last week, Beijing released a 12-point paper outlining steps to end the war in Ukraine, which included respect for all countries’ territorial sovereignty.
While the Russian Foreign Ministry expressed gratitude for China’s efforts, it also stated that any settlement must recognize Russia’s control over four Ukrainian regions: Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson. Although Russia claims to have annexed these regions, it has never had full control over them, according to AFP.
