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By Guy Faulconbridge
MOSCOW (Reuters)—President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that China’s Xi Jinping would visit Russia, saying relations had reached “new frontiers” amid U.S. concerns that Beijing could provide material support to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Chinese weapons supplies to Russia would threaten a potential escalation of the Ukraine war into a confrontation between Russia and China on the one side and Ukraine and the U.S.-led NATO military alliance on the other.
Putin welcomed China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, to the Kremlin, telling him that bilateral trade was better than expected and could soon reach $200 billion a year, up from $185 billion in 2022.
“We await a visit of the President of the People’s Republic of China to Russia, we have agreed on this,” Putin told Wang.
“Everything is progressing, developing. We are reaching new frontiers,” Putin said.
Wang told Putin that relations between the two countries had withstood the pressure from a volatile international situation and that crises offered certain opportunities.
The relationship between China and Russia, Wang said through an interpreter, was not directed against any third party but equally would “not succumb to pressure from third parties” – a clear jab at the United States.
