President Putin has arrived in Beijing for a state visit. He will hold talks with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.
The Russian president said the “unprecedentedly” high level of the strategic partnership had determined his choice to visit China.
This is his first foreign trip after being sworn in as president for the fifth time.
Putin will be in power till 2030.
The Kremlin hopes to deepen the strategic partnership between Russia and China.
Putin said he was looking to focus on cooperation in key sectors with China.
Closer cooperation will be explored in the “field of industry and high technology, space and peaceful nuclear energy, artificial intelligence, renewable energy sources, and other innovative sectors,” he said.
China and Russia declared a “no limits” partnership in February 2022 when Putin visited Beijing. Days later, he sent troops into Ukraine.
China’s state press has described the visit as a state visit from an “old friend.”
Putin will visit Harbin in northeastern China, a city with strong ties to Russia.
This will come after his meeting with Xi.
The US calls Russia its biggest nation-state threat. It labels China as its biggest competitor.
President Biden says this century will be defined as a contest between democracies and autocracies.
Meanwhile, Putin and Xi share a broad worldview which sees the West as decadent and in decline.
China and the US are currently vying for economy supremacy in sectors like quantum computing, synthetic biology, and hard military power.
It was not immediately clear whether Putin would drop in on any other capitals in Asia after Beijing.
(REUTERS)
