#普京将对华进行国事访问#5月12日, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a presidential decree confirming the list of personnel appointments to the new Russian government. For example, Shoigu was transferred to the post of secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, former Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Belousov was reappointed as Russian Minister of Defense, and Lavrov remained in the post of Russian Foreign Minister.
As soon as Putin made arrangements for domestic affairs, he immediately announced the first stop of Putin's foreign visit after taking office. On May 14, the Kremlin and the Chinese Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying that Russian President Vladimir Putin would begin a two-day state visit to China starting on May 16. This is the second time since 2018 that Putin has made his first visit to China since his re-election. At the same time, this is also Putin's first foreign visit after his successful re-election this year. Therefore, Putin's visit to China is destined to be given more meaning.
The Kremlin announced many arrangements and details of the visit, such as the signing of a joint statement between the two countries, as well as a number of bilateral cooperation documents between China and Russia. In addition, the Kremlin also said that the visit will discuss in detail all issues under the framework of the comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination between China and Russia, which will provide a main direction for the development and cooperation of relations between China and Russia in the future, and will discuss all international hotspot issues and exchange views.
Putin
In addition, Putin will also attend the opening party of the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Russia and the year of Chinese in Russia, and will also participate in the 8th China-Russia Expo and the 4th China-Russia Local Cooperation Forum held in Har.
During Putin's two-day visit to China, his itinerary can be described as very close, which also shows from the side that Putin attaches great importance to this visit. However, these are all incidental agendas, and the two most important topics of Putin's visit to China are China-Russia relations and global geopolitical hot issues.
As we all know, due to the impact of the Russian-Ukrainian war, the United States and the European Union have launched as many as tens of thousands of economic sanctions against Russia, which can be said to cover all aspects of Russia. As a result, Russia is unable to obtain foreign exchange through exports to Europe and the United States, and at the same time, its ability to obtain advanced technology products from the United States has also been blocked, and the Russian national economy has encountered unprecedented challenges.
However, fortunately, the west is not bright and the east is bright, and Russia has vigorously developed economic and trade exchanges with China through the eastward strategy, which has to a certain extent made up for the negative impact of Russia's blockage of Western economic and trade pipelines.
On this basis, the economic and trade development of China and Russia will reach a new high in 2023, reaching 240.1 billion US dollars. In the first quarter of this year, the bilateral trade volume between China and Russia once again ushered in a sharp increase, with a year-on-year increase of 5.2% to 56.68 billion US dollars. As the scope of Sino-Russian energy and aerospace cooperation becomes more and more extensive, the quality of Sino-Russian cooperation will also continue to improve.
Therefore, for Russia at present, it is of utmost importance to continue to develop economic and trade relations with China and maintain the warmth of bilateral relations.
In addition, the Russian-Ukrainian war and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict will also become the key to this meeting between the heads of state of China and Russia. On the Palestinian-Israeli issue, Israel's continued ground military operations in the Gaza Strip and the further extension of ground military operations to the Rafah Strip will lead to a large-scale humanitarian crisis in the Rafah Strip.
The reason why Israel is able to do whatever it wants in the Gaza Strip is, to a large extent, due to the connivance of the United States, which has been playing the role of supporting Israel in the United Nations since the United States vetoed the UN Security Council's plan to call for a Palestinian-Israeli ceasefire, and even directly vetoed the plan for the Palestinians and Israelis to establish separate states.
As the world's main energy exporter and the world's communication hub, peace and stability in the Middle East are important not only for China and Russia, but also for global sea routes and energy security. Against the backdrop of the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict, this is bound to become an issue of concern to the Chinese and Russian heads of state at the same time.
Of course, the Russia-Ukraine war will inevitably be a top priority. During the visit of the Chinese leader to France, the Chinese side said that China hopes to work with France to use the Paris Olympics as an opportunity to advocate a sustainable ceasefire during the Olympic Games. Judging by the actions that Russia has already taken, Russia may also hope that Russia and Ukraine will reach a ceasefire agreement during the Olympics.
China, the United States, and Russia
Judging from Putin's personnel appointments, Russia's appointment of Belousov, who is an economist, as its defense minister, is to turn the Russian-Ukrainian war into a "cost-effective" war. And this premise is based on Ukraine's resistance to ceasefire negotiations. It can be inferred from this that Russia still wants to end this Russian-Ukrainian war at the lowest cost, so there is no reason for Putin to refuse a ceasefire during the Olympics.
China is also interested in pushing for a political solution to the Russia-Ukraine war, and the Western countries Russia obviously cannot believe it, while China is completely different. Therefore, the Russia-Ukraine war will also be a key issue that the two sides will discuss.
Finally, Putin's visit to China will be a phased node in Sino-Russian relations, which will set the tone for the development of Sino-Russian relations in the next six years or even longer, and will also inject new impetus into Sino-Russian diplomatic relations and Sino-Russian economic and trade relations. For example, Putin said that he would bring a special gift when he came to China, and the gift was a famous Russian book on "what to do", which shows that Putin has decided to go all out to promote the "eastward strategy", so although this gift is "very light", the meaning behind it is very heavy, and the sincerity is also very strong.