Xi Jinping to visit Russia next week, amid reports of China’s support to Russia

Beijing: Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit Russia next week amid reports of two countries’ strengthening ties as Russia struggles for a face-saving win over Ukraine.

This is going to be Xi Jinping’s first trip to Moscow in nearly four years, according to news agency AFP.

Beijing's foreign ministry said Friday Xi Jinping’s visit comes after the invitation of President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation.

The ministry said in a statement that Jinping, who last visited Russia in 2019, will visit Russia from March 20 to 22.

The two leaders previously met at a regional security gathering in Uzbekistan in September and Putin attended the opening ceremony of Winter Olympics in Beijing last year, according to the report.

A statement from Kremlin now says that both the leaders will discuss ‘strategic cooperation’ when they meet.

The Kremlin statement further said that they will ‘discuss deepening the exhaustive partnership and strategic cooperation between Russia and China’.

It is reported that both leaders will sign important bilateral documents.

The visit is gaining importance as Moscow’s invasion of neigbhouring Ukraine beginning to show Russia’s failures at the battlefront.

Until now, China claimed to be a neutral party in the conflict but Western governments accuse China of providing ‘tacit support for Moscow’.

However China last month released a 12-point paper calling for dialogue as regards the Ukraine crisis.

Meanwhile, China's foreign minister on Thursday asked Ukraine and Russian to begin peace talks.