CHINESE President Xi Jinping will visit Russia next month for a summit of the Brics bloc of developing economies, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi confirmed on Thursday.

The visit will continue the development of a more multilateral world which breaks away from the dominance of the United States and its allies.

Mr Xi’s visit to Russia will be his second since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 as a response to the US-led eastern expansion of Nato. 

China takes a neutral position and has been involved in attempting to find a diplomatic solution to the crisis. The Chinese have presented a framework for a possible solution to the crisis which has been largely dismissed by the Ukrainians and its US military backers.

Wang Yi met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg on Thursday and the two hailed ties between the two countries. The Chinese foreign minister said that Mr Xi “happily accepted” Mr Putin’s invitation to attend the Brics summit in the Russian city of Kazan in October.

Mr Putin in turn announced that the two will also sit down for a bilateral meeting in Kazan and discuss various aspects of the Russia-China relations, which “are developing quite successfully” and “in all directions.”

Mr Xi last visited Russia in March 2023 and Mr Putin reciprocated with his own trip to China in October that year. The two leaders have since also met in Beijing in May, where Mr Putin took the first foreign trip of his fifth presidential term, and in Kazakhstan in July.

The Brics bloc was founded in 2006 by Brazil, Russia, India and China, with South Africa joining in 2010. 

The bloc has recently undergone an expansion and now includes Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates. It is still unclear whether Saudi Arabia has accepted the invitation to join the bloc.