Chinese leader Xi Jinping is preparing to visit Moscow for a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the coming months.
\nInternational media reports\u00a0said on Tuesday that the Xi-Putin summit was part of a Chinese effort to play a more active role in bringing the year-old war to an end and part of a push for multi-party peace talks. China will also use the summit to reiterate calls that nuclear weapons should not be used.
\nPreparations for the trip are at an early stage and the timing has not been finalised, the\u00a0report said, adding that Xi\u2019s visit might take place in April or in early May when Russia celebrates its World War Two victory over Nazi Germany.
\nChina\u2019s top diplomat Wang Yi is currently in Moscow and expected to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Wednesday.
\nIn a tour of Europe, Wang has stepped up calls for a negotiated settlement to end the war in Ukraine, which began on February 24 last year when Russian troops invaded the country.
\nXi and Putin last met in person in China ahead of the Beijing Winter Olympics last year, days before Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24. The two men announced a \u201cno limits\u201d partnership where no areas of cooperation were \u201cforbidden\u201d. They had a video call last December.
\nBeijing has not condemned Russia\u2019s actions or joined Western-led sanctions against Moscow but it has urged \u201crestraint\u201d and stressed disputes should be settled by \u201cpeaceful means\u201d.
\nMeanwhile, its relations with the United States have deteriorated over issues such as human rights in Hong Kong and China\u2019s far western region of Xinjiang, as well as the US discovery this month of what it has claimed was a Chinese \u201cspy balloon\u201d flying over its territory.
\nIn Moscow on Tuesday, Wang again stressed the two countries\u2019 close ties in a meeting with Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of Russia\u2019s powerful Security Council and a close confidant of Putin.
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