Russia has accepted the invitation issued by the Chinese side, and Putin's itinerary for his visit to China has been confirmed, so what is the itinerary of Putin's visit to China? What will be discussed between China and Russia?
On the 14th, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying announced that at the invitation of Chinese leaders, Russian President Vladimir Putin will pay a state visit to China from May 16 to 17. Putin's current visit to China is not only his choice of China as the destination for his first visit after taking office as president twice in a row, but also a return visit to the Chinese leader's earlier state visit to Russia. Obviously, taking advantage of Putin's visit to China, China and Russia have important things to do. So what is the itinerary of Putin's visit to China? In this regard, according to the information released by the Kremlin, during Putin's visit to China, the two heads of state plan to sign a joint statement and will also sign a number of bilateral documents. In addition, Putin will meet with high-level Chinese officials to discuss cooperation in the economic and cultural fields. Not only that, during his visit to China, Putin will also visit Harbin and attend the opening ceremony of the 8th Russia-China Expo, as well as meet with teachers and students of Harbin Institute of Technology.
Just last month, when Putin publicly announced his plan to visit China for the first time at the annual meeting of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, the relevant topics of Putin's visit to China have been the focus of international public opinion, and the outside world has speculated about when the specific time will be. Why did it take nearly a month to decide? In fact, this is not difficult to understand, after all, Putin has just been sworn in, and his nominee prime minister and the leaders of Russia's powerful departments are currently waiting for the review and approval of the Russian parliament. Therefore, Putin will not be able to visit the country until the new government has been formed and has taken over the work. A few days ago, Putin signed a presidential decree to nominate Andrei Belousov, who previously served as the first deputy prime minister, as Russia's defense minister, and appointed former defense minister Sergei Shoigu as secretary of the Russian Federation's Security Council. Immediately after these matters were dealt with, the Russian side announced the specific time and itinerary of Putin's visit to China. From this point, it is not difficult to see that Putin is also full of expectations for this visit to China.
So what specific topics will China and Russia discuss during this upcoming visit? According to statistics released by the General Administration of Customs of China not long ago, from January to April this year, the trade volume between China and Russia increased by 4.7% year-on-year to 76.581 billion US dollars. Among them, China's exports to Russia were 32.734 billion US dollars, a year-on-year decrease of 1.9%; China's imports from Russia were 43.847 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 10.2%. Last year, the trade volume between China and Russia was 240.1 billion US dollars, an increase of 26.3 percent. According to the current growth trend, it is obviously very likely that the total trade volume between China and Russia this year will surpass that of last year. In the face of such data, it is obvious that for Putin, it is of great significance to promote economic and trade cooperation between the two countries. Especially in the current special context of the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine and the joint encirclement of Russia by the United States and Western countries, the economic and trade cooperation between China and Russia is even more important for Russia.
In addition, exchanges and consultations on international issues will also become the focus of discussions between China and Russia, including the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and the BRICS summit to be held in Russia in October this year. Earlier, the Chinese leader had just concluded state visits to France, Serbia and Hungary. During the period, China and France issued a joint statement on the situation in the Middle East, which stressed that "the top priority is to achieve an immediate and sustainable ceasefire". In this regard, Putin should support the joint statement of China and France on the situation in the Middle East, because the immediate ceasefire in Gaza is closer to Russia's position.
All in all, the Chinese side will inevitably be warm to Putin's visit. On the 13th, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin pointed out at a regular press conference that this year marks the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Russia, and China attaches great importance to the strategic guiding role of the diplomacy of the heads of state of China and Russia in bilateral relations.