MOSCOW. May 21 (Interfax) - Russian President Vladimir Putin will pay a state visit to China ahead of a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Qingdao; he will also travel to Tianjin by high-speed rail, the newspaper Izvestia said on Monday.
"Vladimir Putin will begin a state visit to China on June 8. In the course of his visit, the Russian leader will take a high-speed train to Tianjin, which is situated 96 kilometers from the Chinese capital. Izvestia has learned about that from a source in the Chinese authorities. The information was confirmed by Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov," the newspaper said.
Peskov gave an affirmative answer to the question if the president would travel by high-speed rail.
Putin will participate in the SCO summit in Qingdao on June 9 and 10. A meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping is planned during the visit, the newspaper said.
Sources in the Chinese Foreign Ministry told Izvestia that the presidents of Russia and China had been having at least five meetings per year in the recent period, and Putin's pending visit to Beijing would be the key event of 2018.
"A historic meeting between Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping will take place in China. That would be the most significant event in Russia-China relations in 2018. We are confident that the meeting will bring relations between China and Russia to a new level, which is why the meeting of the two leaders will win attention of the entire international community," one of the sources said.