BEIJING: Russian President Vladimir Putin is anticipated to attend a gathering of foreign leaders next week to commemorate the Belt and Road infrastructure project’s tenth anniversary, which China announced on Wednesday( Oct 11 ).
President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road initiative is a historic undertaking, and Beijing announced this week that it had signed contracts worth more than$ 2 trillion worldwide.
However, critics have long claimed that China’s effort to offer enormous, unsustainable loans lured lower-income nations into debt traps.
Representatives from more than 130 nations are expected to attend, and Xi is scheduled to give an opening statement and host a dinner for foreign leaders.
With previous events taking place in 2017 and 2019, this website is the fourth of its kind since China began the massive investment program.
In what will be his second trip to China since his conflict in Ukraine put him in confinement on a global scale, Russian President Putin has stated that he will attend the event.
According to Moscow, leading Russian diplomat Sergei Lavrov will even go and speak with Chinese equivalent Wang Yi.
China and Russia refer to one another as strategic friends, often praising their” no limits” collaboration and military and economic cooperation.
Following the invasion of Ukraine, when the Kremlin sought to strengthen relations with Beijing after becoming more and more shunned by the West, they grew yet closer.
In addition to attempting to portray itself as a neutral party and refusing to denounce the war, China has also provided Moscow with an essential political and financial lifeline.
According to Mao Ning, a spokesman for the foreign ministry,” We welcome countries and partners actively participating in the Belt and Road Initiative( BRI) to come to Beijing to discuss cooperation plans and seek common development.”