Interfax: Putin’s China visit to give powerful impetus to Russian-Chinese strategic partnership – Lavrov

MOSCOW. May 31 (Interfax) – Russia is convinced that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to China will help further bolster the two countries’ partnership, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

“We are convinced that President Putin’s upcoming visit to China in June will give a powerful impetus to the Russian-Chinese multifaceted strategic partnership and will help further realize its inexhaustible potential,” Lavrov said at a Russian-Chinese conference of the Russian International Affaires Council in Moscow.

Alexei Pushkov, who chairs the Foreign Affairs Committee of the State Duma, the lower house of Russia’s parliament, said earlier after a meeting between a Russian delegation, led by State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin, and Chinese President Xi Jinping that preparations for Putin’s visit were proceeding at full speed in China. Pushkov said that the Russian president was expected to visit China in the second half of June