China’s Xi to visit Russia in 2025 amid ‘double resistance’ to West, envoy to Beijing says

China and Russia must keep up their ‘double resistance’ to the ‘double containment’ from the West, Igor Morgulov tells RIA

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Chinese President Xi Jinping with visiting Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Beijing in May. They have met thrice in person this year. Photo: TNS

Published: 6:02pm, 27 Dec 2024Updated: 8:29pm, 27 Dec 2024

Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit Russia next year as the neighbours seek to put up a “double resistance” to pressure from the US-led West, Igor Morgulov the Russian ambassador to China said on Friday.

Russia has pledged to further work together with China on economic and security issues to counter the “double containment” campaign from the West, Morgulov told Russian state news agency RIA.

“In the international arena, our countries will have to continue to respond with ‘double resistance’ to the ‘double containment’ that the West is trying to implement against Russia and China,” Morgulov said.

China shared Russia’s concerns over the Ukraine issue and faced “largely similar challenges”, he added, saying “the United States and its allies in the Asia-Pacific region are systematically increasing military pressure on China”.

Ties between China and Russia have become closer since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The US and its Western allies have sanctioned Moscow for its military aggression and criticised Beijing for not condemning it while accusing it of aiding the Russian war machine. China denies the allegations.

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