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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.
