Putin ‘intends’ to visit China next October

This will be Vladimir Putin’s first trip to China since the start of the Russian military offensive in Ukraine on February 24, 2022. A few weeks before the storming of Kyiv, he traveled to Beijing for the Winter Olympics organized by his Chinese neighbor.

“We have received an invitation and intend to visit China during the Belt and Road Forum, which will be held in October,” Russian news agencies quoted Ushakov as saying.

Russia and China enjoy a close relationship that has deepened since the Kremlin’s offensive in Ukraine and the rain of Western sanctions hitting the Russian economy. Beijing, for its part, did not condemn Russia’s attack on Ukraine.

“Opposing American hegemony”

Thus, in March, the Chinese President visited Moscow, where he said that bilateral relations “entered a new era.” The two countries, which share a common desire to resist what they imagine as American hegemony, have also recently joined forces in the military realm.

In 2017 and 2019, Vladimir Putin, along with other international leaders, participated in the first two Belt and Road Forums in China. This forum got its name from the pharaonic Chinese project “New Silk Roads”, which, in particular, should allow the development of roads, ports, railways and other infrastructure abroad at the expense of Chinese funds.

Answering a question about the G20 summit scheduled for early September in India in New Delhi, Yuri Uchakov said that he “does not rule out, of course” the presence of the head of the Russian state.