(Reuters) – China’s President Xi Jinping will go to Russia in 2025, Russia’s state-run RIA information company quoted Moscow’s ambassador to Beijing as saying early on Friday.

“As for concrete bilateral events, I can say that the appropriate plans are actively being drawn up,” Ambassador Igor Morgulov informed RIA.

“What can be said that is no secret, in terms of priority, is that the chairman of the People’s Republic of China is expected in Russia next year.”

At a daily press convention, China’s overseas ministry didn’t affirm the go to, however reiterated that the 2 international locations maintained shut contacts in any respect ranges.

Russian President Vladimir Putin visited China in February 2022, proclaiming a “no limits” partnership days earlier than he despatched tens of 1000’s of troops into Ukraine. He was in Beijing once more final Might, after his re-election by a landslide, welcoming a “new era” of relations specializing in opposition to U.S. coverage.

Xi was obtained within the Kremlin as a “dear friend” in 2023 after he obtained an unprecedented third time period in workplace.

Morgulov additionally informed RIA that China, which has avoided condemning Russia’s 34-month-old conflict in Ukraine, understood the premise for the battle “in as much as they are coming up against many of the same challenges — the U.S. and its allies are boosting pressure on China in the Asia-Pacific region”.

NATO, he stated, is “devising plans to move its military infrastructure” into the area.

Russia and China had to answer U.S. coverage collectively, he stated.

“In the international arena, it is up to our countries to respond further with a ‘dual counter-action’ to the ‘dual deterrence’ which the West is trying to pursue with regard to Russia and China,” RIA quoted him as saying.

China, working with Brazil, has put ahead a peace plan to finish the Ukraine conflict, calling for a freezing of battle traces and considering the safety pursuits of either side.

Russia has expressed help for the proposals.

Ukraine, which has proposed its personal plans to finish the battle – the newest of which features a request for NATO membership – has dismissed the China-Brazil initiative as serving Moscow’s pursuits.

Russian forces at present occupy about 20% of Ukraine’s territory and have lately been advancing at their quickest tempo because the early days of the conflict.