Vladimir Putin will meet with Xi Jinping this week

Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping this week to discuss bilateral relations, which are “in full expansion,” Russian diplomatic chief Sergei Lavrov said Monday.

The Russian Foreign Minister announced the meeting during a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Beijing.

Wang also confirmed Putin’s participation in the 3rd Belt and Road Forum, a giant international infrastructure project launched by China at the invitation of Xi Jinping.

The head of Chinese diplomacy predicted that Putin’s participation in the forum and his dialogue with Xi Jinping “will be very useful” for the progress of strategic interaction between Beijing and Moscow.

Lavrov said Russia is interested in the forum being “successful.”

“I am confident that this will happen. The fact that almost 150 delegations from different countries and organizations took part in the forum underlines the importance of this project and its very good prospects,” he added.

The Russian President also said in an interview with China Media Group before his trip to Beijing that he expects the best from the forum.

“It may be too early to insist on this, but I am sure that contracts will be signed, new contacts will be established between economic agents and heads of government,” he said.

Putin added that the Russian proposals take up several pages and that “each project could be something that we will work on for more than a year, perhaps a decade.”

Putin also said he has no doubt that trade between Russia and China will reach the $200 billion he and Xi have set as a goal by the end of the year.

The Russian leader also emphasized that the two countries are actively cooperating in the energy sector, especially in the supply of oil and gas.

At the geopolitical level, Lavrov stressed that the relationship between Russia and China is a “fundamental factor” for the stability of the world and that both countries are committed to multipolarity rather than the “colonial mindset” of the United States.

Lavrov said Russia is interested in the third forum of the Belt and Road Initiative being “successful.”

Dubbed the “project of the century” by Xi Jinping, the Belt and Road Initiative was originally introduced in Kazakhstan as a new economic corridor for Eurasia, inspired by the ancient Silk Road. However, over the past decade it has acquired a global scale: more than 150 countries around the world have joined the program.

Chinese companies have built ports, roads, rail lines, power plants and other infrastructure around the world in an effort to boost trade and economic growth.

The program cemented China’s status as a leader and creditor among developing countries.

In the first five years since its launch (2013-2017), China financed an average of $83.5 billion a year in development projects overseas, according to a study by AidData, a US-based international finance research arm. , consolidating its leadership as a top international financier.

The net increase of $31.3 billion per year over the previous five years (2008-2012) is equivalent to the average annual funding of the second-ranked United States during the period 2013-2017.