Russian strongman Vladimir Putin is expected to travel to China on Thursday for an extensive meeting with communist dictator Xi Jinping, expected to conclude with the singing of a 30-page joint statement affirming the “special nature” of their countries’ ties.

Both the Russian and Chinese governments confirmed that Putin would travel to Harbin and Beijing, China, beginning on Thursday. The state visit will be Putin’s first since being inaugurated for a new term as “president” in a rigged “election” in March — a fact senior Russian officials emphasized was intended to distinguish China as one of Russia’s most cherished allies.

Russia and China are close trade partners, and Beijing has assumed an especially important role as a purchaser of Russian oil following the imposition of Western sanctions on Russia in response to its 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. During a meeting in October, Xi expressed support for an ambitious gas pipeline project to connect China with Russia through Mongolia.

Russia, in turn, has supported China’s illegal colonization of the South China Sea, its increasingly belligerent claims over the sovereign state of Taiwan, and its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), in which China offers unfavorable loans to poor countries as a way to erode their sovereignty.

Both China and Russia have worked to support the genocidal terrorist group Hamas since October when the jihadists invaded Israel, gruesomely killed 1,200 civilians, and took another 250 hostages. The two regimes maintain friendly ties with the leadership of Hamas and have advocated for the carving out of a state of “Palestine” alongside Israel, a core Hamas goal. Moscow and Beijing have also supported efforts to condemn Israel’s self-defense actions following October 7 at the United Nations.

Xi and Putin most recently met in person in October, when Putin traveled to China’s “Belt and Road Forum” to back the BRI. Before that, Xi traveled to Moscow in March 2023, where the two leaders reportedly spent hours drinking tea and chatting in private together.

“We had a tete-a-tete conversation, indeed, as you imagine, having a cup of tea. We spoke for about an hour and a half or maybe two hours,” Putin described following the meeting, “and we discussed some issues of particularly confidential nature in private.”

Officials in Moscow suggested the two leaders were planning similar engagements.

“The most important part is the communication between the leaders, which will happen following a concert in the evening of the same day, May 16, and which will be an opportunity for them to start [the discussion],” one of Putin’s top foreign policy aides, Yury Ushakov, told reporters on Tuesday, according to the Russian news agency Tass.

“What is meant is that the leaders will have one-on-one talks. They will take a walk in the park near the palace, have some tea, obviously, and then there will be informal talks,” Ushakov explained, “during an informal dinner with the participation of some delegation members from both sides.”

Tass reported that the Russian government was expecting a “very limited circle of delegates” to be welcome to the private talks. On the Russian side, Ushakov said he would be at the private meeting with Xi, alongside Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and newly minted Defense Minister Andrey Belousov. The man Putin fired from that position, longtime Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, will also reportedly be part of the delegation to China to facilitate the transition to his successor. Shoigu was a critical link to China and fellow communist regime North Korea during his time in the position but faced internal criticism over rumors of corruption in the military and the length of the ongoing Ukraine invasion.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry offered few details on Tuesday regarding Putin’s expected visit, stating only that the two sides would “exchange views on bilateral relations, cooperation in various fields, and international and regional issues of mutual interest.” Chinese officials typically offer little information on such visits in advance and often refuse to even confirm the visits until days before the event.

Ushakov, the top Russian foreign policy aide, was more forthcoming, reportedly stating that the private conversations would give the leaders space to discuss the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine and that the public elements of the meeting would include the signing of a 30-page-long joint statement.

The objective of the joint statement, Ushakov reportedly said, will be to “note the special nature of our bilateral relations, outline ways for the further development of the entire spectrum of bilateral ties, reiterate Russia and China’s leading role in the efforts to form a fair and democratic order.”

Both sides identified “commercial” interests as being part of the expected dialogue, alongside geopolitical unity. The visit to Harbin, an industrial northeastern Chinese city, will reportedly focus on trade and infrastructure cooperation. According to the South China Morning Post, Putin will be in the city for a trade expo focused on opportunities uniting Russia and China.

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