China’s leader has arrived in Moscow for what the Russian president has described as “a major event in bilateral relations.” It is the two leaders’ third meeting this year, and deals worth $10 billion are expected to be signed this time.
The Chinese president is making a two-day stop on his way to Germany, where a G20 summit is scheduled for later this week. Putin and Xi already held an informal dinner at the Kremlin Monday evening. The two leaders exchanged views on Syria as well as issues relating to the Korean Peninsula, where they agreed to “jointly push for a proper settlement… via dialogue and negotiation,”according to Chinese state news agency, Xinhua.
The Chinese leader also emphasized the need to boost cooperation and “steadfastly support each other in pursuing their own development paths and defending their respective sovereignty, national security and development interests,”Chinese media reported. Xi’s official visit would start on Tuesday and will include bilateral talks, according to the spokesman. “It will have an unusual format [of the meeting]: the leaders will meet [Russian and Chinese] representatives of the public, businesses and media, who will briefly inform Putin and Xi Jinping on their cooperation,” Peskov added. During the visit, Putin will also award Xi with the order of St. Andrew the First-Called, one of Russia’s highest honors, for his prominent work in strengthening friendship between the peoples of Russia and China.
Ahead of his visit, the Chinese leader gave an interview to Russia’s TASS news agency, in which he particularly focused on the issue of deployment of the US THAAD missile defense systems to South Korea. Xi criticized the move as “disrupting the strategic balance in the region” and threatening the security interests of all countries in the region, including Russia and China. He also reiterated that Beijing is urging Washington and Seoul to back away from the decision to deploy THAAD systems to the Korean peninsula. Source:
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