After he snubbed last year’s edition of the gathering, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also attending the gathering in Beijing. Relations between India and the U.S. reached a low point this month after U.S. President Donald Trump imposed a 50 percent tariff on Indian goods over the country’s purchase of Russian oil.
Putin will stay in China until Wednesday, when Xi is hosting a military parade to commemorate the end of World War II, following Japan’s formal surrender.
Alongside Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico will attend the parade, as well as Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić.
It comes as several EU foreign ministers on Saturday called on the United States to team up with Europe to pressure Putin to negotiate an end to his war against Ukraine before a Donald Trump-imposed deadline.