Top diplomat Wang Yi, who is currently in Moscow, said relations between the two countries are “rock solid”.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Chinese leader Xi Jinping is preparing to visit Moscow for a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the coming months.
Citing people familiar with the plan, the newspaper on Tuesday said the Xi-Putin summit was part of a Chinese effort to play a more active role in ending years of war and part of a push for multi-party peace talks. China will also use the summit to reiterate calls that nuclear weapons should not be used, the report added.
Preparations for the trip are in the early stages and the timeline is not final, the journal said, adding that Xi’s visit could take place in April or early May, when Russia celebrates its World War II victory over Nazi Germany.
China’s top diplomat Wang Yi is currently in Moscow and is expected to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday.
On a tour of Europe, Wang has stepped up his calls for a negotiated solution to end the war in Ukraine, which began on February 24 last year when Russian troops invaded the country.
Xi and Putin met in person in China ahead of the Beijing Winter Olympics last year, days before Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24. The two men announced a “borderless” partnership, with no areas of collaboration “prohibited”. They had a video call last December.
Beijing has not condemned Russia’s actions or joined in Western-led sanctions against Moscow, but it has urged “restraint” and stressed that disputes should be settled by “peaceful means.”
Meanwhile, its ties with the United States have soured over issues including human rights in Hong Kong and China’s far-western region of Xinjiang, as well as the US discovery this month that it claimed a Chinese “spy balloon” had flown over the territory.
On Tuesday in Moscow, at a meeting with Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of the powerful Russian Security Council and a close confidant of Putin, Wang again emphasized the close ties between the two countries.
“Sino-Russian relations have a mature character: they are rock-solid and will withstand any test in a changing international situation,” Wang Patrushev said through a Russian interpreter in a remark aired on Russian state television.
Patrushev, meanwhile, told Wang that Beijing is the top priority in Russia’s foreign policy and the two countries must stick together.
“In the context of a campaign led by the collective West to contain both Russia and China, the further deepening of Russian-Chinese cooperation and interaction at the international level is of particular importance,” Patrushev was quoted as saying by state media outlet RIA.
Wang is expected to discuss Xi’s trip while he is in Moscow, The Wall Street Journal said.
The Kremlin has hinted that Wang could also meet Putin.