Russia’s top diplomat Lavrov in China ahead of Putin visit

This will be the Russian President’s first trip to a major global power since the Ukraine invasion began.

Vladimir Putin’s strategic dependence on China has only grown since his invasion of neighbouring Ukraine thrust his country into international isolation. Picture: AFP

: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrived in Beijing on Monday ahead of an expected visit by President Vladimir Putin to China, for a gathering of representatives of 130 countries to mark a decade of Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s signature Belt and Road Initiative.

This will be Mr Putin’s first trip to a major global power since the Ukraine invasion began.

Beijing is hosting representatives of 130 countries on Tuesday to Wednesday to mark a decade of its BRI — a key geopolitical project of Mr Xi to extend China’s global reach.

All eyes will be on Mr Putin, however. In September he told Beijing’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Saint Petersburg he had “gladly accepted” Mr Xi’s invitation to visit China for the BRI talking shop.

The Russian leader’s strategic dependence on China has only grown since his invasion of neighbouring Ukraine thrust his country into international isolation. Overnight on Sunday, Mr Putin claimed Russian forces had made gains in their Ukraine offensive, including in Avdiivka, a symbolic industrial hub where fighting has been fierce.

Ukrainian forces say they continue to repel Moscow’s troops in the area. “Our troops are improving their position in almost all of this area, which is quite vast,” Mr Putin said in an interview on Russian television, an extract of which was posted on social media on Sunday.

“This concerns the areas of Kupiansk, Zaporizhzhia and Avdiivka,” he said, praising the army’s “active defence strategy”.

On Saturday, Ukraine reported “very heated” fighting around Avdiivka, saying Russian forces had “not stopped assaulting” it for days in their attempt to surround it.

Kyiv said last week Russia had stepped up assaults on the frontline city, which lies just 15km from Moscow-held Donetsk.

Avdiivka, built around a vast coking plant, has been a symbol of Ukrainian resistance since 2014, when it briefly fell to ­Russian-backed separatists.

It has since marked the frontline. It would be more of a symbolic victory than a strategic one if Russia did capture Avdiivka, given that the town has represented Ukrainian resistance to Russian assaults for so long.

Russian forces now control territory to the east, north and south of the town and are gradually tightening the noose around it in a bid to push Ukrainian ­forces further away from the Russian-occupied city of Donetsk, which is bombed almost daily by Kyiv’s forces.

This year, trade between China and Russia has soared to levels not seen since the beginning of Moscow’s war in Ukraine, with Chinese imports of Russian oil offering Moscow a critical lifeline as international sanctions bite. China has refused to condemn the war in an effort to position itself as a neutral party, while at the same time offering Moscow vital diplomatic and financial support.

At the heart of the deepening partnership is the relationship between Mr Xi and Mr Putin, who have described each other as “dear friends”.

Their alliance is also forged by a symbiotic necessity, each seeing the other as a necessary bulwark in their shared struggle against Western dominance.

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