[AP = 연합뉴스]Chinese President Xi Jinping rejected Russian President Vladimir Putin’s request to visit Russia, the Japanese Yomiuri Shimbun reported on the 4th.
According to the Yomiuri Shimbun, a Beijing diplomatic source said President Putin called Xi Jinping to ask him to visit Russia, but Xi refused.
At the time of the telephone conversation on the 15th of last month, President Putin requested a visit to Russia to congratulate Xi on his 69th birthday, but President Xi responded to the effect that the visit was difficult due to measures such as the corona virus, Yomiuri explained.
Putin and Xi had previously met during the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics on February 4th. At the time, the two leaders emphasized that “there are no fixed restrictions on cooperation between the two countries.”
In addition, foreign media reported that the two countries discussed the invasion of Ukraine, and that Russia planned the invasion after the Olympics.
In fact, Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, after the Beijing Winter Olympics.
Diplomats agree that, as it is customary for Putin to visit Beijing, it is in the right order for President Xi to visit Russia.
Nevertheless, in response to Xi’s refusal, Yomiuri analyzed that there was a temperature difference between the two countries.
Putin’s request to visit Russia was intended to break the isolation caused by the protracted war in Ukraine, but if China accepted this, the US-Europe confrontation would intensify. will be.
However, Yomiuri said that it is difficult to conclude that the solidarity between the two countries is shaken only by this fact.
This is because there are a lot of issues that need to be dealt with in China.
President Xi visited Hong Kong on the 1st to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to China and stayed in mainland China. In the second half of this year, there is also a communist party congress that will determine the third consecutive term.
Meanwhile, a member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, who took a group photo with President Xi on the 30th of last month, tested positive for COVID-19.
As soon as President Xi, who had not left mainland China for two and a half years due to concerns about the spread of Corona 19, left the border area after 893 days to attend the 25th anniversary of the return of Hong Kong sovereignty, Corona 19 was detected in his movement.
Hong Kong Legislative Council member Stephen Ho announced on his social media on the 3rd that he had tested positive for COVID-19 the day before and went into self-isolation.
On the 30th of last month, Rep. Ho attended an event where President Xi took a group photo with about 100 people from all walks of life on the first day of his visit to Hong Kong. He stood two lines behind Xi.
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