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China's President Xi Jinping will be visiting Russia from Mar. 20 to 22 at the invitation of his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.

China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Hua Chunying announced the visit on Twitter today (Mar. 17).

At the invitation of President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation, President Xi Jinping will pay a state visit to Russia from March 20 to 22. 🇨🇳🇷🇺

— Hua Chunying 华春莹 (@SpokespersonCHN) March 17, 2023

In her follow-up tweets, Hua added that Xi's upcoming trip would be one for "friendship and peace."

China will uphold an "objective and fair" position on the Ukraine crisis and play a constructive role in promoting talks for peace, Hua said.

This was the same as state media Xinhua's announcement, which quoted foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin who said the trip would be one of friendship, cooperation and peace.

In addition to Ukraine, the two countries are expected to discuss topics surrounding Sino-Russian cooperation, such as the "One belt, one road" initiative, reported China's state-owned media, People's Daily.

The Kremlin also announced that “important bilateral documents will be signed” in a statement but did not elaborate further, according to CNBC. 

The two leaders last met at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization leaders’ summit in Uzbekistan in September 2022.

Xi's upcoming trip will be his first visit since Russia invaded Ukraine.

Background

In January 2021, then-Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs, Wang Yi, said the strategic cooperation between China and Russia is "boundless and without limits".

Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the two countries have continued reaffirming the strength of their ties, according to Reuters.

Bilateral trade also soared, with China reportedly being Russia's biggest buyer of oil.

Up till now, China has insisted on referring to the Russia-Ukraine war as the "Ukraine crisis" and abstained from a United Nations Security Council resolution that condemned the Russian invasion in September 2022.

On Feb. 24, 2023, the first anniversary of the war, China released a 12-point document which called upon all parties to support Russia and Ukraine in “resuming direct dialogue” as soon as possible to de-escalate the war.

Top image via the Russian embassy in China/Weibo