President Putin Visits China: Meets President Xi Jinping, Invites Foreign Minister Lavrov to New Defense Minister Belusov

JAKARTA - Russian President Vladimir Putin and a number of government officials held bilateral talks with the Chinese government led by President Xi Jinping on Thursday.

"The presidents of Russia and China, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, have started talks at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing," reported Russian news agency TASS, Thursday, May 16.

"The talks are expected to last 45 minutes," the media continued.

President Putin arrived in Beijing on Thursday morning for talks with President Xi that the Kremlin hopes will deepen the two countries' strategic partnership, quoted by Reuters.

In an interview with China's Xinhua news agency earlier, President Putin praised President Xi for helping build a "strategic partnership" with Russia based on national interests and deep mutual trust.

"It was the unprecedented high-level strategic partnership between our countries that determined my choice of China as the first country I would visit after assuming office as president," said President Putin.

"We will try to establish closer cooperation in the fields of industry and high technology, space and peaceful nuclear energy, artificial intelligence, renewable energy sources and other innovative sectors," he continued.

Informal talks between leaders and senior officials from both sides held over tea and dinner on Thursday are expected to be key to the two-day trip.

Kremlin foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov said the talks would cover Ukraine, Asia, energy and trade.

During this visit, President Putin was accompanied, among others, by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov, Deputy Prime Ministers Alexander Novak and Dmitry Chernyshenko, Russian Ambassador to China Igor Morgulov, Defense Minister Andrey Belousov, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov , Governor of the Central Bank Elvira Nabiullina, Director of the Federal Service for Military Technical Cooperation Dmitry Shugayev, CEO of Roscomsos Yury Borisov, as well as Ushakov.

Ushakov said the choice of China as the destination of President Putin's first overseas visit after his re-inauguration for a new term was a response to a similar gesture of friendship made by President Xi last year.

The visit to China will be carried out in two stages. The Russian President is scheduled to visit Beijing and Harbin.

Bilateral talks are planned to focus on trade and economic cooperation. At the meeting, Putin and Xi will also discuss the most pressing political and regional issues.

Ushakov said that the most important part of Beijing's talks were informal, closed-door meetings. In a ‘1+4 format’ on each side, the two leaders will hold important talks on Ukraine.

The second phase of the state visit will take place in Harbin City, the capital and largest city of Heilongjiang Province. There, President Putin is scheduled to attend the opening ceremonies of the 8th Russia-China Exhibition and the 4th Russia-China Interregional Cooperation Forum, and will also meet with students and teaching staff of the Harbin Institute of Technology.