China’s Xi to visit Russia next month for BRICS summit

Moscow: Chinese leader Xi Jinping will visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi confirmed Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia will be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for weapons production.

Wang Yi met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg Thursday and the two hailed ties between the two countries. The Chinese foreign minister said that Xi “happily accepted” Putin’s invite to attend the BRICS summit in the Russian city of Kazan in October. Putin, in turn, announced that the two will also sit down for a bilateral meeting in Kazan and discuss various aspects of Russia-China relations.