MOSCOW, August 31. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday will set out on a four-day visit to China at the invitation of Chinese leader Xi Jinping. According to Kremlin Aide Yury Ushakov, such a long foreign trip is an unusual and rare event.
Putin will first go to the city of Tianjin, where a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Council of Heads of State will take place between August 31 and September 1. On Monday, the Russian leader will travel to Beijing.
Russia-Chinese talks are set to be held on September 2. The Russian president will be accompanied by what Ushakov described as a "fundamental" delegation consisting of almost all of the cabinet members and representatives of large companies. The two countries’ leaders plan to discuss the most serious issues over a cup of tea. Apart from the two heads of state, this meeting is going to involve four people on each side, with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Defense Minister Andrey Belousov, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office Maxim Oreshkin, and Kremlin Aide Yury Ushakov representing Russia.
Putin and Xi are expected to address a wide range of issues, from ways to expand bilateral economic cooperation to key regional and international problems. Special attention will certainly be paid to efforts to resolve the Ukraine crisis. In addition, Putin plans to brief the Chinese leader on the outcome of his Alaska meeting with US President Donald Trump.
