Putin said he had “high hopes” for talks with the Chinese leader. (file)
Moscow:
President Vladimir Putin on Sunday welcomed China’s willingness to play a “constructive role” in ending the conflict in Ukraine, saying that Sino-Russian ties are “at the highest point”.
His Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping heads to Russia on Monday in hopes of delivering a breakthrough on Ukraine as Beijing seeks to position itself as a peacemaker.
The quality of ties between Moscow and Beijing “is higher than that of Cold War-era political and military alliances”, Putin said in an article written for a Chinese newspaper and published by the Kremlin on the eve of Xi’s visit. Did.
Putin said he had “high hopes” for talks with the Chinese leader.
“We have no doubt that they will give a new powerful impetus to the entire bilateral cooperation,” he said.
Putin praised China’s willingness to “play a constructive role in resolving” the year-long conflict in Ukraine.
He said he was grateful to Beijing for its “balanced” stance on events in Ukraine and its understanding of the backstory of the conflict and the “real reasons” behind it.
“Russia is open to resolving the Ukrainian crisis by political-diplomatic means,” Putin assured in the article.
However, he insisted on Kiev’s recognition of “new geopolitical realities”, namely Russia’s annexation of four Ukrainian regions last year as well as Crimea back in 2014.
“Unfortunately, the ultimatums to Russia show that (their authors) are far removed from these realities and have no interest in finding a solution,” he said.
Announcing the visit on Friday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said Beijing would “play a constructive role in promoting peace talks”.
Freshly appointed for a third term in power, Xi has been pushing for a bigger role for China on the global stage, and this month was key in mediating a surprise rapprochement between Middle Eastern rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
