China’s top lawmaker will become the most senior Chinese official to visit Russia since the Ukraine war began when he attends the seventh Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok this week.
Li Zhanshu, chairman of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, will pay official visits to Russia, Mongolia, Nepal and South Korea from Wednesday, according to the Xinhua news agency on Sunday. He will attend the four-day forum, set to begin on Monday, during his stay in Russia, it said.
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Li, currently ranked No3 in the Chinese Communist Party, is due to retire from his Party position at a Party congress next month, but will keep his parliamentary position until March.
China’s President Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin announced a “no limit” strategic partnership in February, weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine in what Putin calls “a special military operation.”
- Reuters with additional editing by Sean O’Meara
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