China’s top security official Chen Wenqing will visit Russia ahead of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s expected visit to China next month, as law enforcement cooperation between Beijing and Moscow continues to grow.
Chen, a member of the Communist Party’s Politburo and secretary of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, has been invited to attend the 12th meeting of senior officials on international security issues, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Friday. Chen will visit Russia from Sunday to 28 April, it said.
The visit comes about a month after 133 people were killed at a concert hall near Moscow in Russia’s worst terrorist attack in decades.
Chen was promoted to China’s top security post, overseeing police and intelligence, in a leadership change in October 2022. He previously served as Minister of State Security.
Speaking at the 11th Meeting of Senior Officials on International Security Issues in Moscow in May 2023, Chen stressed that China would promote common international security while continuing to protect its own security.
During his visit, he met with Russian intelligence chief Sergei Naryshkin and Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev. The two sides agreed to deepen cooperation in safeguarding security interests.
The visits took place under the Sino-Russian law enforcement and security cooperation mechanism established in 2014. Bilateral meetings are held annually to discuss issues such as national security and counter-terrorism.
Xi and Putin to meet
China and Russia have grown closer on security issues in recent years amid rising tensions with the West. Chinese President Xi Jinping met Putin in Moscow in March last year and the two leaders discussed issues ranging from bilateral cooperation to the war in Ukraine and Beijing’s proposed peace plan.
Putin is reportedly planning to visit China in May to mark the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries, but Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said last week that he could not confirm the timing of Putin’s visit.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov confirmed earlier this month that Xi and Putin would meet on the sidelines of this year’s Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting in Kazakhstan and the BRICS summit in Russia, which will be attended by the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
Lavrov met Xi in Beijing last week. In their talks, the two pledged to defend a multipolar world and jointly condemned the Western-led “bloc conflict”. Xi said China was willing to strengthen strategic coordination with Russia within multilateral frameworks to “promote reform” in the global system.
The two countries have boosted economic ties and increased cooperation in areas such as the military, artificial intelligence and space.
Last year, China’s total trade with Russia reached a record $240 billion, up 26 per cent from the previous year, making Russia mainland China’s sixth largest trading partner after the US, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
China has been Russia’s largest trading partner since 2010.
