Chinese President Xi Jinping on three-day state visit to Russia starting March 21

Chinese President Xi Jinping in October 2022. REUTERS - TINGSHU WANG

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2 min

The tete-a-tete between Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin is expected to take place on Tuesday, March 21. This will be the second since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine (the two leaders spoke last September on the sidelines of a regional summit in Uzbekistan) and the first time in four years that the Chinese head of state will visit Russia. The trip is also the first major official visit to Russian soil since the launch of what the Kremlin persists in calling a "special operation in Ukraine."

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From our correspondent in Moscow, Anissa El Jabri

The excitement is palpable in Russia. As soon as Xi Jinping's visit was announced on Friday, March 17, we wondered in which prestigious hotel in the Russian capital the Chinese president would stay.

Still in line with presenting itself as a neutral party in the conflict (China's 12-point peace plan was published last month), Beijing's statement speaks of a trip "for friendship and peace".

The Russian presidency evokes "the deepening of the comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation between Russia and China" especially "on the international scene" and the Kremlin evokes the signing of many important contracts. The promotion of concrete content to this "friendship without limits" proclaimed on the sidelines of the Beijing Olympics, just days before the sending of Russian soldiers to Ukraine, is important for Russia.

The only dissonant voice in one of the many programs devoted this morning to the visit of the Chinese leader to Russia, a Russian expert, Mikhail Khodaryonok, stressed on the Rossiya channel: "China has only one ally, it is itself. Only one priority: his interests. She is totally devoid of altruism," remarks made under the ostensibly skeptical gaze of the other guests.

► Also listen: China: "Xi Jinping returns to the great history of the Chinese empire"

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Read on on the same topics:

  • Russia
  • China
  • Xi Jinping
  • Vladimir Poutine
  • Diplomacy