Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi has said on Friday that President Xi Jinping is preparing for the state visit to Russia, later this year.
According to Sputnik news reports, on the sidelines of the Chinese parliament’s Congress, the Asian country’s foreign minister told an annual press conference: “This year, Russian President Vladimir Putin will attend the Belt And Road forum in Beijing. China’s Chairman Xi Jinping is preparing to carry out a state visit to Russia.”
In last year’s December, Xi had accepted an invitation presented by Russian President Vladimir Putin to address the 2019 St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in Moscow, stating that he would participate in the event.
China’s ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ is one of the most ambitious foreign policy plans of President Xi, which Beijing’s FM Wang Yi described it as a “symphony performed by all relevant countries.” The Initiative embodies China’s aspirations to enhance trade and economic growth across Asia and beyond.
In last year’s May, Xi had invited world leaders to Beijing to attend an inaugural summit, at which he promised to disburse $124 billion for the project. Historically, China’s Silk Road was an ancient network of trade routes that, for centuries, were indispensable to cultural interaction across Eurasia, connecting East and West.