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President Vladimir Putin will meet China’s Xi Jinping for talks in Beijing in October, Russia said on Tuesday, Putin’s first known trip abroad since an arrest warrant was issued against him over the deportation of children from Ukraine.
Nikolai Patrushev, a close Putin ally and the secretary of Russia’s Security Council, said Russia and China should deepen cooperation in the face of the West’s attempt to contain them both.
He was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying that the talks in Beijing would be “thorough,” at a meeting in Moscow with China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi.
Putin will attend the third Belt and Road Forum after an invitation by Xi during a high-profile visit to Moscow in March.
Days before that visit, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant for Putin’s arrest on suspicion of illegally deporting hundreds of children or more from Ukraine.
Moscow denies the allegations and the Kremlin said the warrant was evidence of the West’s hostility to Russia, which opened a criminal case against the ICC prosecutor and the judges who issued the warrant.
