Russian President Vladimir Putin will travel to China this week to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, just a few days after US President Donald Trump completed his own trip to Beijing.
Putin will be in China on Tuesday and Wednesday for a visit that is likely to be closely watched as Beijing seeks to maintain stable relations with the United States while maintaining strong ties with Russia.
The Kremlin has said Putin and Xi plan to discuss economic cooperation between the two countries, as well as “key international and regional issues.” The visit coincides with the 25th anniversary of the Sino-Russian Friendship Treaty signed in 2001.
“Trump’s visit was about stabilizing the world’s most important bilateral relationship; Putin’s visit is about reassuring a long-standing strategic partner,” said Wang Zichen, deputy secretary general of Beijing-based think tank Center for China & Globalization.
“For China, these two tracks are not mutually exclusive.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) and Chinese President Xi Jinping met last August during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Tianjin, China. (Sergei Bobylev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)