Beijing looks ahead to Putin China visit for war remembrance - foreign minister

MOSCOW, June 3. /TASS/. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Wednesday Beijing would welcome Russian President Vladimir Putin to events there marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War Two. Celebrations would also mark 70 years since victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Wang said, opening talks with Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov and looking to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev's visit to gather the two states' heads of government. China’s top diplomat recalled the two national leaders meeting in Moscow last month when President Xi Jinping joined World War Two commemorations in the Russian capital - "a landmark high-level meeting demonstrating China’s and Russia’s determination to safeguard the outcomes of World War Two and our countries’ historic contribution to defeating fascism", Wang said. Xi and Putin had agreed at those talks to link Beijing's Silk Road East-West trading route and the Moscow-led Eurasian Economic Union, deciding "to align development strategies of the two countries and strengthen co-operation in energy, investments, space, exploitation of the Russian Far East and railway construction", Wang said. Their new meeting would prepare for July summits of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation gathering Russia, China and the Central Asian former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan alongside the BRICS grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, Wang said, noting this year as eventful and important for Chinese-Russian relations. Read more