MOSCOW, April 16. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has asked visiting Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu to convey his best wishes to Chinese President Xi Jinping.

"I am very glad to see you," Putin said welcoming the Chinese minister in the Kremlin.

"Please convey my best wishes to [Chinese] President Xi Jinping," he added.

The Russian leader recalled that his Chinese counterpart had visited Russia not long ago. "You have arrived in Russia after the visit to our country by our big friend, my friend - Chinese President Xi Jinping. I would like to stress once again that the visit was very productive," Putin said.

Chinese President Xi Jinping visited 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.