China's top diplomat Wang Yi will visit Russia next week for talks on issues such as settling the war in Ukraine, both countries said on Friday, UNN reports citing AFP.
Details
"At the invitation of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov... Foreign Minister Wang Yi will pay an official visit to Russia from March 31 to April 2," the country's Foreign Ministry said.
During the visit, he will meet with Russian leaders and hold talks with Lavrov, Beijing said.
"China is ready to use this visit as an opportunity to cooperate with Russia to promote the implementation of the important consensus reached by the heads of the two states," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said at a briefing.
He will also hold "in-depth communication on the development of Sino-Russian relations at the next stage, as well as on international and regional issues of common interest to both sides," he said.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said that during the visit they will discuss "bilateral relations, high-level contacts, including the highest level, as well as the most pressing issues on the international agenda, including the prospects for resolving the crisis around Ukraine."
Last month, Beijing hosted a senior Russian security official, Sergei Shoigu, just days after Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and welcomed Moscow's "positive efforts to resolve" the "Ukrainian crisis," as Beijing calls the war.
China has said it welcomes all steps towards a ceasefire in the conflict.
But Beijing is constantly facing calls to do more to force Moscow to start negotiations and end the war in Ukraine.
On Thursday, in the Chinese capital, France's top diplomat told Wang Yi that China "must play a role in convincing Russia to sit down at the negotiating table with serious and bona fide proposals."
Moscow has announced that the leaders of Russia and China will visit each other to mark events dedicated to the end of World War II.
Xi's visit will coincide with events commemorating the victory in Russia's so-called "Great Patriotic War" on May 9.
Putin, in turn, will visit China in late August and early September, Moscow said.
Addition
Beijing and Moscow have ramped up economic cooperation and diplomatic contacts in recent years, and their strategic partnership has only grown stronger since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.
China has positioned itself as a neutral party in the war and says it is not sending lethal aid to either side, unlike the US and other Western countries.
But it is a close political and economic ally of Russia, and NATO members have called Beijing a "decisive enabler" of the war, which it has never condemned.