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'Ready to increase strategic cooperation in face of…' : Xi tells Vladimir Putin
Xi Jinping-Vladimir Putin: Russian president Vladimir Putin said that he was expecting Xi Jinping to make a state visit to Russia in spring 2023.
China's president Xi Jinping told his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin that Beijing is ready to increase strategic cooperation in the face of difficult international challenges, Reuters reported.
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"We aim to strengthen cooperation between the armed forces of Russia and China," Putin told Xi Jinping by video link as he hailed the efforts of Moscow and Beijing to counter "unprecedented Western pressure and provocations."
While, Russian president Vladimir Putin said that he was expecting Xi Jinping to make a state visit to Russia in spring 2023.
In introductory remarks from a video conference between the two leaders, Vladimir Putin said the importance of Russia-China relations was rising as a stabilising factor, and that he aimed to deepen military cooperation between the two countries.
Vladimir Putin also said that Russia had become one of China's leading suppliers of oil and gas as it shipped 13.8 billion cubic metres of gas to China via the Power of Siberia pipeline in the first 11 months of 2022.
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“According to the results of this year, Russia has become one of the leaders in oil exports to China,” Vladimir Putin said. With this, Russia overtook Saudi Arabia as China's top crude supplier last month.
Vladimir Putin added that Russia was China's second largest supplier of pipeline gas and fourth largest of liquefied natural gas (LNG) as well.
