FROM EIR DAILY ALERT
Putin and Xi Exchange Invitations to Major Events of 2019; Putin, Xi, Modi Also Hold ‘RIC’ Meeting
Dec. 1, 2018 (EIRNS)—In the course of the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, Russian President Vladimir Putin has invited Chinese President Xi Jinping to the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) in 2019.
“We are preparing for your visit next year. I know that you already received our invitation to time your visit with the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. I ask you to look at your schedule. If this works, we will be glad to see you as the main guest,”
Putin said reported TASS.
Accepting the invitation Xi Jinping replied: “I will gladly visit your country next year and take part in the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum” and proceeded to invite Putin to China to participate in the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation. The first Belt and Road Forum took place in May 14-15, 2017, in which the think tank workshop was also addressed by Helga Zepp-LaRouche.
“I invite you to take part in the second summit ‘One Belt, One Road’ at the end of April next year. We will have many meetings next year. I am confident that close contacts will take Chinese-Russian relations to a new level,”
Xi said.
Also during the summit, Putin and Xi held a trilateral meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at the request of the Russian President. Putin suggested that a Russia-India-China (RIC) meeting should be held on a regular basis.
“I’d like to note that Russia, India and China are linked by old, century-long friendly relations which we are building based on the principles of good-neighborly relations, equality of rights and mutual confidence,”
TASS quoted Putin said as saying. While the last such meeting was 12 years ago, Putin reminded his listeners: “They were really productive. One of the results was the creation of the BRICS.”
“We believe that the RIC format has large prospects and that cooperation in this trilateral format may become effective supplementation to cooperation which our countries carry out bilaterally and in the BRICS,”
Putin said.
“It is important to establish joint work on key issues of the economic agenda, including in the Group of Twenty, jointly protect the principles of just and fair competition in the world trade and finance and support the establishment of a system of international economic relations that would be as open as possible and free of protectionism and politically motivated restrictions,”
Putin said.
“I expect our today’s conversation to be useful and that we will be able to make these meetings regular further on. In particular, they could be held on the sidelines of large summits and international events. Of course, it is important to continue trilateral coordination at other levels as well and create additional mechanisms of cooperation if need be.”
