Vladimir Putin has arrived in Beijing to meet his ‘dear friend’ Xi Jinping. The trip aims to highlight the “borderless” partnership between the two countries.
On only his second known foreign trip since the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for him, Putin and his entourage flew to Beijing on Tuesday morning.
It is also the Russian president’s first official trip outside the old Soviet Union this year, after he visited Kyrgyzstan, a former Soviet republic, earlier this month.
The ICC, which accused him of illegally deporting children from Ukraine, is demanding that its 123 member states arrest Putin and send him to The Hague for trial if he enters their territory.
Neither Kyrgyzstan nor China are members of the International Criminal Court, which was established to prosecute war crimes.
Xi last met his counterpart in Moscow just a few days after the order was issued.
At the time, he invited Putin to attend the third Belt and Road Forum in Beijing, an international cooperation forum sponsored by the Chinese leader.
Putin will attend the forum’s official opening reception hosted by Xi and speak on Tuesday with the leaders of Vietnam, Thailand, Mongolia and Laos, Russian media reported.
As the forum’s chief guest, Putin will address Xi on Wednesday and meet with the Chinese president later in the day for bilateral talks.
Beijing has rejected Western criticism of its partnership with Moscow even as the war in Ukraine showed no signs of abating, insisting that the relationship does not violate international norms and that China has the right to work with any country.
Putin last visited China in the context of the Beijing Winter Olympics in February 2022, when Russia and China declared an “unrestricted” partnership, days before the Russian president sent tens of thousands of troops to Ukraine.
It would be Putin’s third participation in the Belt and Road Forum, which runs until Wednesday. He participated in the two previous forums in 2017 and 2019.
The forum’s focus is on the Belt and Road Initiative, a grand plan Xi launched a decade ago that he hopes will build global infrastructure and energy networks connecting Asia to Africa and Europe via land and sea routes.
Putin praised the initiative, saying it was a platform for international cooperation where “no one imposes anything on others.”
Since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine, Russia has strengthened its energy ties with China as a sign of its economic cooperation.
Russia exports about two million barrels of oil per day to China, over a third of its total crude oil exports. Moscow also wants to build a second natural gas pipeline to China.
Although the leaders of Russian oil and gas giants Rosneft and Gazprom will be part of Putin’s traveling delegation, no new energy deals are expected.
According to the Kremlin, the trip is not a “fully bilateral” visit, but rather a visit on the sidelines of an international conference.
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Source: Metro
Source: Metro
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