After Trump, Putin will visit Beijing for talks with Xi Jinping

China’s Foreign Ministry said on Monday that during Putin’s two-day visit, Xi Jinping and Putin will exchange views on bilateral relations, cooperation in various fields, and international and regional issues of common concern.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said at a media briefing in Beijing that this will be Putin’s 25th visit to China. He emphasized that the two countries have close strategic relations and there is a profound friendship and harmonious relationship between the leaders of the two countries.

Both sides will take this visit as an opportunity to continue to promote China-Russia relations to a higher level and inject more stability and positive energy into the world.

Since Xi Jinping came to power in 2012, the leaders of the two countries have met dozens of times, often calling each other “dear friends” and emphasizing mutual trust.

Relations have been strengthened through cooperation on trade, energy, security and efforts to counter Western influence.

Many observers consider the Xi-Putin relationship to be one of the most important political partnerships in contemporary global affairs.

Putin’s visit to Beijing comes days after Trump paid a three-day visit to Beijing from May 14 to 16, during which he and Xi held closed-door talks on a range of global and bilateral issues. The focus of Trump’s visit to China is the ongoing conflict in West Asia, which has led to the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and triggered a severe global energy crisis.

The conflict began on February 28, when the United States and Israel jointly attacked Iran, triggering retaliatory strikes.

Iran is a close strategic ally of Russia and China. Both countries are major arms suppliers to Iran. In addition, China imports 90% of its oil from Iran, ignoring U.S. sanctions.

A White House fact sheet on Trump’s visit released on Sunday said the United States and China agreed that Iran cannot possess nuclear weapons and called for the Strait of Hormuz to be reopened. They also agreed that no country or organization could impose tolls, the statement said, an apparent reference to Iran’s plan to charge ships passing through the strait.

When asked to comment on the White House briefing, a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that during President Trump’s visit, the two heads of state agreed to build a new vision of “constructive Sino-US strategic and stable relations” as the “new positioning” of bilateral relations.

The two sides also planned high-level exchanges and dialogue cooperation in the fields of diplomacy, economy and trade in the next stage, and had an in-depth exchange of views on international and regional issues of common concern.

This article was generated from automated news agency feeds without modifications to the text.