Xi Jinping Invites Russian President Putin To Visit China This Year: Report

Xi Jinping said Tuesday that he had invited his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to visit China this year.

File Photo of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Chinese President Xi Jinping said Tuesday that he had invited his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to visit China this year, ahead of a second round of talks between the two leaders in Moscow, Russian news agencies reported.

#UPDATE Chinese President Xi Jinping said Tuesday that he had invited his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to visit China this year, ahead of a second round of talks between the two leaders in Moscow, Russian news agencies reported. pic.twitter.com/oL9wgJ9q7D

— AFP News Agency (@AFP) March 21, 2023

Putin on Monday told Chinese President Xi Jinping that he had looked at China's proposals for a resolution of the Ukraine conflict and that he viewed them with respect, reported Reuters. Putin tells Xi Jinping, who is in Moscow for a three-day state visit to Russia, that they will discuss China's Ukraine peace plan.

Xi arrived in Moscow to meet with President Putin, a state visit that will highlight their nations' close ties amid the war in Ukraine and will be closely watched by Kyiv and its Western allies. Xi Jinping told President Putin that he was convinced that Putin enjoyed the Russian people's support ahead of a presidential election scheduled for next year, it reported.

Speaking at informal talks at the start of Xi's state visit to Moscow, Putin also said that Russia was "slightly envious" of China's rapid development in recent decades, as reported by ANI. Meanwhile, Ukraine and the United Kingdom have called on the Chinese leader to use his influence and press Moscow to end the war. The UK said that China should back up its support for the respect of territorial integrity and demand that Russia end its war in Ukraine.

Putin made a surprise visit to occupied Crimea on the ninth anniversary of Russia's illegal annexation of the peninsula, just a day after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant, TASS reported. According to Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov, earlier Putin was expected to join the cultural and historical event virtually but he himself arrived at the site and gave a surprise to everyone.