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Alexei Nikolsky | TASS | beautiful pictures
BEIJING – President of China Xi Jinping set up to meet virtually with the President of Russia Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, China’s Foreign Ministry said on Monday.
The two leaders met for the last time at the end of june, also via video link. The meeting went like Rising tensions on the Russian-Ukrainian border has attracted international attention.
The US and other Group of 7 leaders on Sunday issued a statement condemns “Russia’s military construction and aggressive rhetoric towards Ukraine.” Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and The UK is part of a bloc of major economies.
China is not part of the G-7, but the Asian giant is one Reuters cited officials as the focus of the group’s discussions at a meeting over the weekend.
China, which shares a long border with Russia, has focused much of its bilateral relationship on trade, especially energy. In the context of coal shortage this year, China buys a large amount of coal and other fuel this year from its northern neighbor.
It is not clear what Beijing’s position is on Ukraine. Xi spoke by phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in July, according to Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China.
In a virtual meeting with the President of the United States Joe Biden last week, Putin said Washington should not let Ukraine join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in return for assurances that Russian troops would not launch an attack.
Biden said Washington would not accept such a request.
An attack on one member of NATO – a powerful military alliance – is considered an attack on all member states. Ukraine has wanted to join the alliance since 2002, but Russia objected on the grounds that such a move would be a direct threat to its borders.
