Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping will have an in-person meeting next week in Uzbekistan at the site of a future summit.
Russia’s envoy to Beijing Andrey Denisov informed reporters about the face-to-face at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit on Wednesday, according to Russian state media.
US: RUSSIA TO PURCHASE ROCKETS AND ARTILLERY SHELLS IN ARMS DEAL WITH NORTH KOREA
The two leaders’ relationship has grown since Russia invaded Ukraine in February. The meeting will occur before a major political gathering in Beijing, where Xi is anticipated to seek a third term in a break from tradition. The Chinese Communist Party is hosting the 20th National Congress in Beijing in October, which the party holds only twice a decade.
“I do not want to say that online summits are not full-fledged, but still, direct communication between leaders is a different quality of discussion. One way or another, there will be plenary sessions and various kinds of group meetings, and we are planning a serious, full-fledged meeting of our leaders with a detailed agenda, which we are now, in fact, working on with our Chinese partners,” the diplomat said.
The SCO summit is scheduled for Sept. 15-16 in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, and the group involves China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
Putin also attended large-scale military drills involving troops from China and other nations on Tuesday. The Vostok 2022 exercise involves more than 50,000 troops and over 5,000 weapons, according to the Associated Press.
Xi and Putin spoke in mid-June and, in a readout of the call from the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said their “practical cooperation has developed steadily” as they “have maintained a good momentum of development.”
Xi also said in the call that China is “willing to, together with Russia, continue to support each other on issues concerning core interests and major concerns such as sovereignty and security, intensify strategic coordination between the two countries, and strengthen communication and coordination in major international and regional organizations.”
Before the war in Ukraine began, the two countries released a communique detailing a broad set of plans for economic and diplomatic cooperation. And though China’s government said it has tried to achieve “peace” between Russia and Ukraine, the country has also amplified Russia’s disinformation and its claims of justification.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Russia, with the war taking much longer than anticipated and a slow defense industrial base, has sought to buy military equipment from both Iran and North Korea, though Defense Department officials have said as recently as Tuesday that they didn’t have such evidence.
“In terms of what Russia may be asking of China or not, I don’t have any information to provide from the podium on that, other than to say that in an era of strategic competition, we’ll continue to keep a very close eye on Russia and China and the threats that they pose to international stability and the international rules and norms that have largely kept the world safe for the last 70-plus years, since World War II,” Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon spokesman, told reporters Tuesday.
