Chinese President Xi Jinping welcomed Russian colleague Vladimir Putin with honors today for a three-day state visit to Beijing.
Putin, meeting with his Chinese counterpart, underlined how the cooperation between Russia and China achieved unprecedented results by announcing that a stable and lasting cooperation with the People's Republic of China remains one of the main priorities of Moscow.
In recent days, the Russian president, interviewed by a Chinese television channel, described his Chinese colleague as "a good friend" with whom it is easy to work. In the same interview Putin also pointed out that the Sco - regional security group of which China and Russia are the leaders - was born two decades ago with "small" goals but now they are becoming a group of global significance.
The two leaders will be busy, tomorrow and Sunday, in Qingdao, in eastern China, for the planned summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (Sco) countries, which, in addition to China and Russia, also has four Central Asian Republics (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) and, from this edition, also India and Pakistan.