Chinese language president Xi Jinping pays a state go to to Russian president Vladimir Putin on Monday in a transfer that may reaffirm the leaders’ robust ties regardless of western condemnation of Moscow’s invasion of neighbouring Ukraine.

China’s international ministry stated Xi and Putin would have “in-depth exchanges on bilateral relations and necessary worldwide and regional problems with mutual concern” through the three-day go to, Xi’s first to Russia because the warfare started in February final yr.

China has introduced itself as a possible mediator within the Ukraine battle, a declare seen with scepticism in Europe and the US due to Xi and Putin’s shut relationship, sealed simply earlier than the hostilities erupted when the pair declared a “no limits” partnership.

Over the previous yr, Xi has maintained common contact with Putin whereas Chinese language state media have parroted Russian propaganda on the warfare, describing the state of affairs as a “disaster” moderately than an invasion.

The Chinese language chief has not spoken to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy because the warfare started. However one particular person conversant in the matter in Beijing stated Xi may also conduct a video convention with the Ukrainian president within the coming days.

China has but to substantiate such a plan however Beijing has stepped up ministerial-level contact with Ukraine in current weeks. On Thursday, China’s international minister Qin Gang spoke to his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba to name for peace talks.

“China upholds a good and goal place in Ukraine and performs a constructive function in selling talks for peace,” China’s international ministry stated on Friday.

Whereas China gave no additional particulars on the agenda of the Russia state go to, the Kremlin stated Putin and Xi would talk about “problems with creating relations of all-encompassing partnership and strategic interplay between Russia and China”.

They might additionally interact in an “alternate of views within the context of deepening Russia-China co-operation within the worldwide area” and signal “quite a few necessary bilateral paperwork”. It didn’t give particulars on the paperwork.

Putin and Xi would meet one-on-one on Monday, adopted by an off-the-cuff lunch, stated Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. The important thing China-Russia talks might be held on Tuesday.

Analysts stated Beijing would use any name between Xi and Zelenskyy to attempt to help its claims that it was genuinely eager about a job as a doable peacemaker within the battle.

China may level to its mediation of a deal between Saudi Arabia and Iran final week to revive diplomatic ties as proof of its current success as a negotiator. Analysts imagine, nevertheless, that resolving the Ukraine battle will show way more advanced for Beijing, which the west views as aligned with Moscow.

“I feel it’s getting tougher and tougher for China to persuade the world that it’s by some means this impartial participant in Ukraine. So a visit by Xi Jinping to Moscow to see Putin presently simply by itself would once more not be an awesome search for China,” stated Paul Haenle of the Carnegie Endowment for Worldwide Peace, who was a China adviser to US presidents George W Bush and Barack Obama.

However he stated if Xi then referred to as Zelenskyy, he may promote the journey to Moscow as speaking to either side within the curiosity of securing a peace deal.

Within the US, the Biden administration has inspired Xi to talk with Zelenskyy to get a extra balanced perspective on Russia’s invasion.

Nationwide safety adviser Jake Sullivan stated final week that the US would preserve shut tabs on any summit between Putin and Xi to see if it was a precursor to a choice to switch deadly help from China to Russia.

“Russia has its personal pursuits in making an attempt to drag different nations into this battle if it might,” he stated.

He added: “It might not be in China’s pursuits, from our perspective, for them to provide weapons to Russia to be used on the battlefield in Ukraine, however that’s a sovereign determination China must make for itself.”

Further reporting by Maiqi Ding in Beijing and Polina Ivanova in Berlin