President Putin Planned To Hold Bilateral Talks With Xi Jinping In Beijing Next Month, Discuss What?

President Xi Jinping and President Vladimir Putin. (Wikimedia Commons/Kremlin.ru/Presidential Press and Information Office)

JAKARTA - Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping are scheduled to hold talks in Beijing in October, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev said.

"We hope that substantive bilateral talks between President Vladimir Putin of Russia and President Xi Jinping of China will take place in Beijing in October, as part of the participation of Russia's head of state in the One Belt International Forum, One Road," he said in a Russia-Chingkok strategic security consultation., reported TASS September 19.

Patrushev said the relationship between Moscow and Beijing, which is based on the principles of mutual respect, does not interfere with each other's domestic affairs, and supports each other on the international stage, "is basically strong and does not depend on changing situations."

"This approach has been repeatedly confirmed at the highest level, particularly in a joint statement adopted by the two countries during China's President Xi Jinping's state visit to Russia on 20-22 March 2023," Patrushev said.

Presidents Putin and Xi have the same world view, which sees the West as decadent and is experiencing setbacks.

Separately, trade between Russia and China jumped 30 percent in the first half of this year, an increase to more than $200 billion by 2023, Russian Economy Minister Maxim Reshetnikov said on a visit to China.

"We are actively developing investments, including in our major gas and petrochemical projects, where we are actively using Chinese technology," Reshetnikov said.

The United States sees China as the heaviest long-term "strategic competitor", while Russia as an "acute threat".