Xi and Putin to meet in Uzbekistan next week: Russian agencies

MOSCOW: China’s Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet next week during a regional summit in Uzbekistan, a Russian diplomat said Wednesday, as the Chinese leader makes his first trip abroad since the start of the pandemic.

“In less than 10 days our leaders will meet at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit” in Samarkand, the Russian ambassador to China, Andrey Denisov, told Russian agencies.

The SCO summit is scheduled from Sept 15-16.

Their meeting will mark the first time the two leaders have spoken in person since Russian invasion of Ukraine in February.

“We are planning a serious, full-fledged meeting of our leaders with a detailed agenda, which we are now, in fact, working on with our Chinese partners,” Denisov was quoted as saying.