Xi Jinping and Putin met in Kyrgyzstan on the sidelines of the SCO summit
Kyiv • UNN
Putin and Xi Jinping met in Kyrgyzstan ahead of the SCO summit. Moscow seeks to make visa-free travel with China permanent.
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Bishkek on Monday, where they arrived to participate in the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. Anadolu Agency reports, UNN writes.
Details
Putin and Xi Jinping arrived in Kyrgyzstan to participate in the SCO summit, the main official events of which will begin on Tuesday. The meeting with the Chinese leader was the first in a series of Putin's bilateral talks with foreign leaders on the sidelines of the summit.
It is noted that Russia is ready to work with China to make the visa-free regime between the two countries permanent.
"We are ready to work together to make the visa-free regime permanent if the Chinese side considers this possible and beneficial," Putin said during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Bishkek.
Russia introduced a reciprocal visa-free regime for Chinese citizens in December 2025, allowing them to stay in Russia for up to 30 days without a visa until September 14, 2026. China had previously introduced a similar regime for Russian citizens.
The two countries subsequently agreed to extend the visa-free regime for their citizens until the end of 2027.
The dictator of the Russian Federation said that the visa-free regime contributed to an increase in the number of trips between the two countries: tourist trips increased by 43% in the first half of 2026.
Chinese Ambassador to Russia Zhang Hanhui previously reported that the number of Chinese tourists in the Russian Federation increased by nearly 50% in the first quarter of 2026 after the introduction of the visa-free regime.
The drive to make the visa-free regime permanent emerged amid efforts by Moscow and Beijing to deepen people-to-people contacts and economic ties. Tourism is part of broader bilateral cooperation.