Xi Jinping To Meet Vladimir Putin In First Foreign Trip Since Onset Of COVID-19: Analysts On What To Expect With This Meeting

Chinese President Xi Jinping is set to meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on his first foreign trip in more than two years since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

What Happened: Xi will be on a state visit to Kazakhstan on Wednesday. He would then meet the Russian President at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization's summit in the ancient Silk Road city of Samarkand in Uzbekistan, Reuters reported.

The Xi-Putin meeting came ahead of the 20th National Congress, where the Chinese President is expected to secure an unprecedented third five-year leadership term and cement his place as the country's most powerful leader since Mao Zedong.

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Why It's Important: Analysts believe that the meeting between the two leaders would allow them to show their opposition to the West amid the U.S. sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's controversial Taiwan visit, which, China said, undermined its sovereignty.

"It is all about Xi in my view: he wants to show just how confident he is domestically and to be seen as the international leader of nations opposed to Western hegemony," George Magnus, author of "Red Flags", a book about Chinese President's challenges, told the publication. 

According to Alexander Korolev, senior lecturer in politics and international relations at UNSW Sydney, the visit "shows that China is willing to not only continue 'business as usual' with Russia but even show explicit support and accelerate the formation of a stronger China-Russia alignment."

"Beijing is reluctant to distance itself from Moscow even when facing serious reputational costs and the risks of becoming a target of secondary economic sanctions," he told the publication.

Meanwhile, China's Communist Party is looking to amend its constitution next month at its 20th National Congress, a move political watchers believe could consolidate Xi's authority and stature within the party.

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