MOSCOW: Chinese leader Xi Jinping will visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi confirmed Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence.
Xi’s visit to Russia will be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for weapons production.
Wang Yi met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg Thursday and the two hailed ties between the two countries. The Chinese foreign minister said that Xi “happily accepted” Putin’s invite to attend the BRICS summit in the Russian city of Kazan in October.
Putin, in turn, announced that the two will also sit down for a bilateral meeting in Kazan and discuss various aspects of the Russia-China relations, which “are developing quite successfully” and “in all directions.”
Xi last visited Russia in March 2023 and Putin reciprocated with his own trip to China in Oct. that year. The two leaders have since also met in Beijing in May, where Putin took the first foreign trip of his fifth presidential term, and in Kazakhstan in July.
After launching what the Kremlin insists on calling a “special military operation” in Ukraine, Russia has become increasingly dependent economically on China as Western sanctions cut its access to much of the international trading system. China’s increased trade with Russia, totaling $240 billion last year, has helped the country mitigate some of the worst blows from the sanctions.
Moscow has diverted the bulk of its energy exports to China and relied on Chinese companies to import high-tech components for Russian military industries to circumvent Western sanctions.
The two countries have also deepened their military ties in the last two years.
The BRICS alliance was founded in 2006 by Brazil, Russia, India and China, with South Africa joining in 2010. It has recently undergone an expansion and now includes Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates. Saudi Arabia has said it’s considering joining, and Azerbaijan and Malaysia have formally applied.
BRICS has a stated aim to amplify the voice of major emerging economies to counterbalance the Western-led global order. Its founding members have called for a fairer world order and the reform of international institutions like the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
China’s Xi Jinping to visit Russia next month for the BRICS summit
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China’s Xi Jinping to visit Russia next month for the BRICS summit
- Chinese leader’s visit to Russia will be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022
- China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West
Trump hopes North Carolina speech will bolster standing on US economy
- Trump works to turn around public opinion on economy
- Opinion polls show Americans have doubts
ROCKY MOUNT, North Carolina: US President Donald Trump traveled to the “battleground” state of North Carolina on Friday, seeking to convince Americans that his handling of the economy is sound ahead of a midterm election year that could spell trouble for him and his ruling Republicans.
With prices increasing and unemployment up, Trump has his work cut out for him. A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday showed just 33 percent of US adults approve of how Trump has handled the economy.
Trump is set to argue that the US economy is poised for a surge due to his policies and that any problems they are experiencing are the fault of the Democrats.
He contends that he has lowered the price of gasoline, imposed tariffs that are generating billions of dollars for the US Treasury and attracted hundreds of billions of dollars in investment pledges by foreign governments.
Republicans worry, however, that economic woes could jeopardize their chances in elections next November that will decide whether they will keep control of the House of Representatives and the Senate for the remaining two years of Trump’s term.
The speech is taking place at a 9 p.m. rally (0200 GMT Saturday) at the convention center in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. The city is represented by a Democrat in the House, Don Davis, who faces a tough re-election fight in 2026 after the boundaries of his congressional district were redrawn.
North Carolina is considered a “battleground” state because its statewide elections are closely contested between Democrats and Republicans. But Trump won the state in 2016, 2020 and 2024.
The North Carolina event is a stop on the way to his oceanfront Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, where he plans to spend the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.
The US president has repeatedly said that any economic pain Americans are experiencing should be blamed on policies he inherited from his predecessor, Democratic President Joe Biden.
“Eleven months ago, I inherited a mess, and I’m fixing it,” Trump said in a grievance-filled speech on Wednesday night that he delivered in a jarringly rapid-fire pace. Democrats have argued that Trump himself has bungled the economy, the central issue he campaigned on last year.
rump got some early holiday cheer on Thursday from the Consumer Price Index report for November. It said housing costs rose by the smallest margin in four years.
Food costs rose by the least since February. Egg prices — a subject Trump raises regularly — fell for a second month, and by the most in 20 months. The report nonetheless showed that other prices, like beef and electricity, soared.
Overall, prices rose 2.7 percent over the year prior. Asked what his message will be in North Carolina, Trump said it would be similar to his last two events, a prime-time address on Wednesday night and a visit to Pennsylvania last week.
“We’ve had tremendous success. We inherited a mess, and part of what we inherited was the worst inflation in 48 years,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday. “And now we’re bringing those prices down. I’ll be talking about that.”
