Putin to meet Xi Jinping, attend Winter Olympics opening ceremony next month

Asia-Pacific, Europe, News January 16, 2022 , by IRIA No Comments

Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Beijing to attend the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics and hold talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on February 4.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in a statement on January 14, “We are preparing an official Russian-Chinese summit. Russian President Vladimir Putin, at the invitation of China’s President Xi Jinping, will visit Beijing on February 4, on the opening day of the Olympic Games, and full-scale talks at the highest level will be held on the same day.”

According to the Russian foreign minister, the talks between the two leaders “will encompass the entire range of relations that are distinguished by an intensive bilateral agenda and the unique architecture of bilateral relations that Russia practically doesn’t have with anyone else.”

Lavrov stated: “I am talking about annual summits, the annual meetings of the heads of government, and the annual sessions of five commissions at the level of deputy prime ministers that prepare the meetings of the heads of government. This mechanism has proved its high effectiveness. The decisions are prepared that are thought through in detail, are executable and they really help increase our interaction. Thus, last year a record growth of the trade turnover was achieved, a very substantial one at that.”

Earlier on December 15, 2021, Russian President Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping held a video conference and agreed that Russia and China should resolutely reject Western interference and safeguard each other’s security interests.

*^{The virtual meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping on December 15, 2021.}*

During the talks, both leaders emphasized how the common hostility towards the West has brought Moscow and Beijing closer to each other.

The Russian president said: “I would like to note that we invariably support each other on issues of international sports cooperation, including rejection of any attempts to politicize sports and the Olympic movement.”

Separately, Pakistani media reported last week that Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan will travel to Beijing to attend the opening ceremony of the 2022 Beijing Olympics and hold bilateral talks with Chinese President Xi.

In December 2021, China also conveyed an invitation to Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to visit China and attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games.

ALSO READ: White House announces a diplomatic boycott of Beijing Winter Olympics 2022

The announcement of China’s close allies, Russia and Pakistan’s leaders’ visit to Beijing comes after the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada officially launched a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and decided not to send senior officials to the games.