BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping will travel to Moscow on a state visit on Monday for crucial talks with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin during which he is expected to pitch for peace talks to end the raging war in Ukraine.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said on Friday that at the invitation of President Putin, President Xi would pay a state visit to Russia from March 20 to 22. Xi’s visit will be seen as a powerful signal of Beijing’s support for Putin in Western capitals, where leaders have grown increasingly wary of the two neighbouring nations’ deepening partnership as war rages in Europe.
Meanwhile, the International Criminal Court said on Friday it has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Putin for war crimes because of his alleged involvement in abduction of children from Ukraine. The court said in a statement that Putin “is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation”.
It also issued a warrant Friday for the arrest of Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, the Commissioner for Children’s Rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation, on similar allegations.