Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is headed to China Sunday for a four-day visit, said that the two countries jointly oppose “discriminatory” sanctions in global trade that hinder the world’s socio-economic development.
This will be Putin’s first visit to Beijing since May last year.
Moscow and Beijing will continue to work to reduce mutual trade barriers, Putin said in the written interview with China’s official Xinhua news agency, published on Saturday. “To sum up, economic cooperation, trade and industrial collaboration between our countries are advancing across multiple areas,” he said.
Kremlin has called Putin’s visit to hold talks with Russia’s biggest trading partner “unprecedented.” He will first attend the two-day Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in the northern port city of Tianjin.
After the summit, Putin will travel to Beijing to hold talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping. He will also attend a massive Chinese military parade marking the end of World War II after Japan’s formal surrender.
“During my upcoming visit, we will certainly discuss further prospects for mutually beneficial cooperation and new steps to intensify it for the benefit of the peoples of Russia and China,” he further wrote.
Since the Russia-Ukraine war in February 2022, while the West cut bilateral ties with Moscow, China maintained trade relations pushing it to a record $245 billion in 2024, as per The Guardian.
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In 2022, Putin and Xi declared a “no limits” strategic partnership.
The Russian President’s visit to China comes in the backdrop of its war against Ukraine and Trump’s game of chicken with US tariffs.
Putin is expected to sit alongside Xi at the military parade in Beijing on September 3, similar to visuals of the two seated beside each other on the May 9 Victory Day celebrations in Moscow.
— With inputs from Reuters, Guardian