MOSCOW, April 16. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin held a working meeting with visiting Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu, Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday.

"Putin held a working meeting with China’s State Councilor and Defense Minister Li Shangfu," he said, adding that further details will follow.

The Russian defense ministry said on April 14 that Li Shangfu will pay his first foreign visit as defense minister to Russia on April 16-18. He plans to have talks with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Shoigu, to discuss "the current state and prospects for the development of bilateral cooperation in the defense sphere, as well as current issues of global and regional security."

Putin’s meeting with the Chinese defense minister was held shortly after Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Moscow on March 20-22. On the first day of Xi’s visit, the two leaders spoke one-on-one for 4.5 hours and held talks in various formats for six hours on the following day. The visit yielded two joint statements of the presidents.

A month prior, on February 22, Putin received Director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and member of the CCP Politburo Wang Yi.