Putin to visit China next week, days after Trump’s Beijing trip

Russian President Vladimir Putin will travel to China on May 19 for a twoday visit just days after US President Donald Trump concluded his trip to Beijing the Kremlin announced on SaturdayDuring the visit Putin is expected to hold talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on ways to ldquofurther strengthen the comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperationrdquo between Moscow and Beijing news agency AFP reported citing a Kremlin statementThe two leaders will also ldquoexchange views on key international and regional issuesrdquo and sign a joint declaration following their discussions the statement addedAs part of his visit Putin is also scheduled to meet Chinese Premier Li Qiang to discuss economic and trade cooperationThe announcement comes shortly after Trump wrapped up the first visit to China by a US president in nearly a decade Despite the grand reception accorded to him in Beijing several trade and geopolitical tensions including the UkraineRussia conflict remained unresolvedAlthough Trump and Xi discussed the ongoing conflict in Ukraine as well as the US leaderrsquos stalled confrontation with Iran no major breakthrough appeared to emerge from the talks before Trump departed China on FridayUkraine war ChinaRussia ties expected to figure prominently in PutinJinping talksUSbrokered negotiations aimed at ending the fighting in Ukraine have reportedly remained stalled since the outbreak of the USIsraeli war with Iran on February 28Ahead of Trumprsquos arrival in China Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had urged the US President to raise the issue of ending the conflict during his meeting with XiMoscow however has ruled out a ceasefire or broader peace negotiations unless Ukraine accepts the Kremlinrsquos demandsWhile China has repeatedly called for dialogue to end the conflict it has refrained from condemning Russiarsquos military offensive in Ukraine launched in February 2022 and continues to present itself as a neutral partyBeijing has also denied supplying weapons or military components to Moscow instead accusing Western nations of prolonging the conflict by continuing to arm UkraineChina the worldrsquos largest buyer of Russian fossil fuels has emerged as Moscowrsquos key economic partner particularly after Western sanctions targeted Russian oil and gas exports following the Ukraine conflictLavrov says RussiaChina ties stronger than lsquotraditional political and military alliancesrsquoTrump claimed on Friday that he had secured ldquofantasticrdquo trade deals during his China visit including commitments from Beijing to purchase 200 Boeing aircraft as well as American oil and soybeansHowever details regarding these agreements remained limited and China did not formally announce any trade dealUnlike Trump who described Xi as a ldquogreat leaderrdquo and a ldquofriendrdquo Beijingrsquos response to the summit remained relatively restrainedRussiarsquos Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov welcomed the ChinaUS summit on Friday but stressed that Moscow shared closer ties with BeijingldquoIf the agreements reached or to be reached by Beijing and Washington are in the interests of our Chinese friends we can only be delightedrdquo Lavrov said during a press conference in New DelhiHowever he maintained that Russia was ldquobound to China by ties that are deeper and stronger than traditional political and military alliancesrdquoWith AFP inputs