‘China Good Old Friend, Russia Open to Settlement’: Putin Hails Xi’s Willingness to Mediate in Ukraine
Last Updated: March 20, 2023, 10:13 IST
In this file photo, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin (L) and China’s President Xi Jinping attend a ceremony presenting Xi with a degree from the Saint Petersburg State University on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in Saint Petersburg. (AFP)
Putin called Xi his good old friend and said Russia had high hopes for his visit, the first visit of the Chinese President since the Ukraine war
Russian President Vladimir Putin has praised “good old friend” Xi Jinping in a newspaper article published in China ahead of the Chinese president’s visit to Beijing that will reaffirm the strong ties between the two leaders.
The two leaders will meet one-on-one on Monday, followed by an informal lunch, Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said.
In an article written for a Chinese newspaper on Sunday, Putin welcomed China’s willingness to play a “constructive role” in ending the conflict in Ukraine, saying Sino-Russian relations were “at the highest point”.
Putin called Xi his good old friend and said Russia had high hopes for his visit, the first visit of the Chinese President since the Ukraine war.
He said he was grateful to Beijing for its “balanced” stance on events in Ukraine and its understanding of the conflict’s backstory and the “real reasons” behind it.
“Russia is open to a settlement of the Ukrainian crisis by political-diplomatic means,” Putin assured in the article.
Announcing the trip Friday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said Beijing would “play a constructive role in promoting peace talks”.
Xi Jinping also published an article in Rossiiskaya Gazeta, a daily published by the Russian government, where he called for “pragmatism” on Ukraine and described his trip as a “journey of friendship, cooperation and peace.”
The Chinese president said his trip to Russia aimed to strengthen the friendship between the two nations, “an all-encompassing partnership and strategic interaction,” in a world threatened by “acts of hegemony, despotism and bullying”.
China has sought to portray itself as a neutral party in the Ukraine war, and its foreign ministry said last week that Beijing would “play a constructive role in promoting peace talks” between Kyiv and Moscow.
Xi’s trip serves to bolster an isolated Putin, who in a defiant move on Sunday went to the Ukrainian city of Mariupol — his first visit to territory captured from Kyiv since Moscow’s invasion in February 2022.
Xi’s visit also comes just days after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin on the war crime accusation of unlawfully deporting Ukrainian children.
Read all the Latest News here
For all the latest world News Click Here
