Next week is anticipated to see a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Uzbekistan as Beijing and Moscow step up their economic cooperation in response to Western-led criticism and sanctions.
According to the Russian state news outlet Tass, the two presidents are scheduled to meet at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit taking place on September 15–16. Andrey Denisov, the Russian ambassador to China, made the announcement to reporters on Wednesday.
The meeting is the most recent indication of improving relations between China and Russia, which have vowed to be friends “no matter what” in the face of escalating economic difficulties at home and deteriorating relationships with the United States and its allies abroad.
In an effort to lessen its reliance on the US financial system after being subjected to repeated rounds of sanctions over its involvement in the conflict in Ukraine, Russia’s state-run energy giant Gazprom announced on Tuesday that it had signed an agreement with China to settle payments for gas in yuan and roubles rather than US dollars.
The Xi-Putin talks would be the first time the two leaders have spoken face to face since Moscow invaded Ukraine, and would take place as the Chinese president prepares to go abroad for the first time since the COVID-19 outbreak began by paying a visit to Kazakhstan the next week.
The crucial ruling Communist Party convention, scheduled for mid-October, is when Xi is anticipated to win a historic third term in office. The meeting takes place just weeks before that congress.
With the impending summit between the two presidents, “their relations are expected to further develop and deepen in a variety of areas, largely due to good political trust and economic complementarity, and partially because of the US offensives on both Beijing and Moscow,”
