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Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (left) shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin during their meeting in St. Petersburg on Sept. 20. (TASS/Yonhap)

Russian President Vladimir Putin is scheduled to visit China next month.

During a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Saint Petersburg on Wednesday, Putin said he was “certainly pleased to accept the Chinese president’s invitation to visit China in October as part of an event promoting the [Chinese] president’s idea of One Belt, One Road,” according to the TASS news agency.

Putin also said the Chinese initiative “harmonizes our ideas to create a vast Eurasian space.”

If the meeting between the two leaders takes place as planned, it will be the second in seven months since Xi’s visit to Russia last March. Xi had asked Putin to visit China during their meeting at the time.

The prospect of a China-Russia summit is drawing particular attention as it comes in the wake of another summit last week between Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Facing increased international isolation following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Putin now looks to be seeking alternatives through closeness with Beijing and Pyongyang.

The stronger trilateral relationship among North Korea, China, and Russia also appears to be a reaction to the moves by South Korea, the US, and Japan to beef up their trilateral security cooperation.

After departing Pyongyang on Sept. 10, Kim had a summit with Putin on Sept. 13 at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia and surveyed a fighter aircraft plant before returning to North Korea on Monday.

By Park Byong-su, senior staff writer

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