MOSCOW. March 22 (Interfax) - Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold talks with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in the Kremlin on Friday.
This state visit to Russia is Xi's first trip abroad as president of China.
At their meeting, the Russian and Chinese leaders will discuss key issues surrounding contacts between their countries, including cooperation in the economy, trade, the energy sector, investment, technologies and humanitarian affairs, as well as industrial projects and ties between the two countries' regions, the Kremlin press service said.
Putin and Xi also plan to exchange opinions on a wide range of international and regional problems, among them the situation in the Middle East and North Africa, the Syrian crisis, the latest developments around Iran and Afghanistan, as well as the situation on the Korean peninsula and Northeast Asia in general.
Other topics on the summit's agenda include ways to further promote coordination between Russia and China within the UN and other multilateral formats - the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the G20, APEC and BRICS, the Kremlin said.
Putin and Xi are expected to hold their next meeting on the sidelines of a BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) summit, due to take place in Durban, South Africa, on March 26-27.
The sides plan to sign a number of bilateral documents after the Russian-Chinese talks in the Kremlin.
More than 20 documents could be signed during Xi's Moscow visit, apparently excluding a document addressing Russian-Chinese cooperation in the gas sector.
"As far as I know, no decisive document is available on gas. But contacts continue in a positive mode, although no gas agreement can be seen on the long list of documents," the Russian president's press secretary Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday.