Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit China in October, his first notable foreign visit since the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant against him, according to a report.
The Russian President had earlier toured Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine, countries that neighbor the former Soviet Union and Iran, but not farther than that after the arrest warrant was issued this March.
Putin accepted an invitation from Chinese President Xi Jinping to attend the the Belt and Road Forum in October, Bloomberg reported, citing anonymous sources. The ICC arrest warrant is for his alleged war crime of unlawfully deporting and transferring children from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.
The ICC is backed by 123 countries worldwide, but China is not a party to the organisation. Besides China, India, Russia, and the United States too are not members of the ICC.
Though he toured Mariupol and Crimea the day after the arrest warrant was issued, Putin skipped the BRICS summit in South Africa last week, opting to attend the summit virtually. Putin is also believed to have opted out of next month’s Group of 20 summit though India isn’t a signatory to the court.
In a telephonic conversation with Prime Minister Modi, Putin conveyed his inability to attend the G20 Summit and informed that Russia would be represented by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The two leaders then reviewed progress on number of issues of bilateral cooperation and exchanged views on regional and global issues of mutual concern.
Putin's trip to China comes months after Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Moscow in March in a show of support to the country. The two leaders had pledged support to each other, stating that "all-around cooperation between the two countries has broad prospects."
"Topical issues of Russian-Indian relations, which are progressively developing in the spirit of a particularly privileged strategic partnership, were considered [in the call]," the Kremlin said in a statement. "The positive dynamics of trade and economic cooperation was affirmed," it added.
