China’s top diplomat Wang Yi to visit Russia for security talks in September

China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, will visit Russia for security talks from 18 September 18 to 21 September, according to his foreign ministry, the latest in a series of high-level trips and phone contacts between the two countries.

China and Russia are strategic allies, with both promoting their “no limits” friendship and economic and military cooperation.

Their connections grew even stronger when Russia invaded Ukraine in February of last year, which China has failed to condemn.

China’s foreign ministry said in a statement that Wang “will go to Russia to hold the 18th round of the China-Russian Strategic Security Consultations (SSCC) from 18 to 21 September” at the invitation of Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of Moscow’s security council.

Defence Minister Li Shangfu visited Russia and Belarus last month, calling for more military cooperation.

In recent months, the two nations have conducted coordinated sea and air patrols, with South Korea deploying fighter planes as a precaution.

The high-level interaction appears to be intensifying, with a Putin adviser suggesting in July that the Russian president planned to visit China in October.

President Xi Jinping paid a state visit to Moscow in March, declaring that ties between the two nations had entered a new era.

China has attempted to present itself as a neutral party in the Ukraine conflict, while also providing Moscow with a key diplomatic and financial lifeline as its international isolation worsens.