MOSCOW, May 7. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s calendar of upcoming official foreign visits has been almost finalized, Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov said on Tuesday.
"We do have already scheduled meetings," Ushakov told journalists when asked about Putin’s next schedule of international-level meetings for this year.
He noted that this schedule primarily concerns "major summits."
"The most important summit for us is the BRICS summit in Kazan in October," he said. "In addition to the APEC and the SCO summits, there will be a lot of events, there will be a million of events of different kind, including bilateral meetings, bilateral visits both to us and our trips abroad."
"As of today, it is important to pay a visit to China and we will announce the date [of this visit] in the days to come," Uashakov added.
The Russian presidential aide stated earlier that the dates of Putin’s China visit would be announced in the near future. Ushakov added that it would be the president’s first foreign visit after his inauguration.
"We promised this to the Chinese. The Chinese made such a proposal. This is kind of a response to President Xi Jinping’s first official visit [to Russia] that he made last year after his election," Ushakov emphasized.
"A trip to Turkey is on the agenda," the Kremlin aid went on to say. "Certainly, preparations for it are underway but no specific dates have been agreed yet, this I can tell you for sure."
Ushakov stressed that Putin’s visit to Turkey was a foreign policy priority. "We will very soon discuss the dates when Mr. [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan’s invitation could be implemented," he said.
Putin took office as president of Russia for the fifth time. The ceremony that kicked off his new presidential term took place on Tuesday. The Russian presidential election was held from March 15 to 17. According to the Central Election Commission, the incumbent president won 87.28% of the vote. The election’s turnout was 77.44%, the highest in Russia's latest history