Russia says Putin to hold phone call with China’s Xi this week

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) - Russia said on Tuesday that President Vladimir Putin will hold a phone call with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, this week to discuss the current escalation witnessed in the Middle East, among other topics.

“Literally in the coming days, this week, our president will have a telephone conversation with Chairman Xi Jinping,” Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov told reporters in a briefing, according to state news agency Tass.

Ushakov said both Putin and Xi will be discussing bilateral topics, as well as other issues concerning the two countries.

Among these topics, he said, is the current situation seen in the Middle East, where China and Russia “act in unison and coordinate their positions with each other.”

Regional tensions have escalated since Friday, when Israel launched coordinated airstrikes on multiple sites across Iran, including military and nuclear facilities, prompting Tehran to launch retaliatory strikes.

Israeli authorities said that at least 24 people have been killed and hundreds injured in Iranian missile attacks since Friday.

Iran, for its part, said that at least 224 people have been killed and over 1,000 others wounded in the Israeli assault.

Ushakov also addressed the cancellation of the next round of Russia-US talks, which Moscow had announced the day before, saying that "some kind of agreement" would be reached between the Foreign Ministry and the State Department on where to hold the talks.

“For now, the issue is somewhat in limbo,” he added.

On Monday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova announced that the third meeting as part of Russia-US consultations to normalize the activities of their respective diplomatic missions was canceled “at the initiative of American negotiators.”

“We hope that the pause they took will not be too long,” Zakharova went on to say, without providing a reason behind the cancellation of the talks, which were planned to be held in Moscow.

US authorities have not yet confirmed or commented on the remarks.

The previous consultations, which aimed to normalize the operations of the Russian and US embassies and address obstacles in bilateral relations, took place in Istanbul, Türkiye, on February 27 and April 10.