MOSCOW, May 18. /TASS/. Expectations from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s upcoming visit to China, Vladimir Zelensky’s allegations about Russia’s plans to attack Ukraine or a NATO country from the Belarusian territory, as well as the situation in Cuba were among the topics of Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov’s briefing on Monday.
TASS has summed up the Kremlin spokesman’s key statements.
On the president’s schedule
President Vladimir Putin will hold a meeting with permanent members of the Russian Security Council later in the day.
Apart from that, the head of state is getting prepared for an upcoming visit to China.
On Putin’s visit to China
Russia has "very high expectations" for Putin’s upcoming visit to China.
Russia’s delegation "will include all relevant deputy prime ministers, many ministers, and heads of state and private companies operating in China."
Russia will not compete with the US over the composition of the delegation for President Putin's visit to China: "We are not competing with anyone regarding the composition of our delegations. We are developing our independent and very multifaceted relations with China, which we and our Chinese friends call a privileged, special strategic partnership."
Relations between Russia and China are diverse: "In addition to trade and economic cooperation, we are actively developing our dialogue in the field of education. Incidentally, a Year of Russian-Chinese Cooperation in Education will be launched."
Moscow and Beijing also cooperate in medicine and culture: "That is, in every possible area."
Any contacts between President Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping help create new momentum for the further development and expansion of relations between Moscow and Beijing: "Contacts between the leaders of the two countries contribute to creating new momentum for further development and expansion of relations [between Russia and China]."
"All issues that are on the economic agenda of our bilateral relations will naturally be touched upon [during Putin’s visit to China]."
Russian Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov will provide detailed information about President Putin’s upcoming official visit to China later in the day: "By the way, I would not like to jump ahead myself; my colleague Ushakov will give a briefing on this later in the day. He will tell all of us about our expectations [from the upcoming visit] based on his professional profile."
On conflict in Ukraine
The peace process over Ukraine is currently on hold, but Moscow hopes it will resume: "The peace process is currently on hold. We hope that it will eventually resume."
Moscow hopes that Washington will continue its mediation efforts to resolve the Ukrainian crisis: "We hope that our US colleagues will continue their peacekeeping and mediation efforts."
Russian forces target only military facilities in Ukraine while Ukrainian troops continue attacking civilian infrastructure in Russia: "As for strikes by our armed forces, they are delivered only at military targets or at sites affiliated with the military. In this context, it would be appropriate to once again draw attention to Ukraine’s continuing drone attacks on civilian facilities of civilian infrastructure in various Russian cities and settlements."
Vladimir Zelensky’s remarks that Russia could allegedly attack Ukraine or one of the NATO countries from Belarusian territory are nothing more than an attempt to incite the continuation of the war: "We do not believe that such statements deserve any comment. Belarus is our ally, and we have a Union State with them. However, it is a sovereign state. Therefore, such statements are nothing more than an attempt to further incite the continuation of the war and escalate tensions."
On situation in Cuba
Russia is in constant contact with its Cuban friends: "Of course, we regularly exchange information and ideas on how to alleviate the enormous burden imposed by the blockade."