Final preparations are underway for the ceremonial welcome of Russian President Vladimir Putin at Tiananmen Square in Beijing.
An official welcoming ceremony will be held in front of the Great Hall of the People, where Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping will later hold talks. The honor guard, already lined up to welcome the Russian leader, will take part in the welcoming ceremony.
The Russian and Chinese flags are placed on the square.
The Russian leader arrived in China last night for a two-day official visit. An official ceremony with an honor guard and orchestra was held at the Beijing airport.
Children traditionally took part in the ceremony, chanting greetings in Chinese and waving miniature Russian and Chinese flags in greeting. Putin was greeted on the steps of the plane by Foreign Minister and Director of the Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China Wang Yi, China's second most recognizable politician after Xi Jinping.
Last week, US President Donald Trump was greeted at the airport by Chinese Vice President Han Zheng.
After a welcoming ceremony for the Russian delegation in Beijing's central Tiananmen Square, high-level talks will be held at the Great Hall of the People. Putin and Xi Jinping will first hold a private meeting to discuss the most important and sensitive issues on the bilateral agenda.
The Russian-Chinese talks will then continue in an expanded format with the participation of delegations.
Along with Putin in Beijing will be First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov, Deputy Prime Ministers Tatyana Golikova and Alexander Novak, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Agriculture Minister Oksana Lut, Governor of the Bank of Russia Elvira Nabiullina, Roscosmos CEO Dmitry Bakanov, Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller, and many other government officials and major representatives of Russian business.
After the meeting, the parties will adopt joint documents; approximately 40 such agreements have been finalized for the visit. Putin and Xi Jinping are expected to sign several of them: a declaration on further strengthening the comprehensive partnership and strategic coordination, as well as a declaration on the development of a multipolar world and a new type of international relations.
Later in the day, the leaders of the two countries will participate in the opening ceremony of the Years of Russian-Chinese Cooperation in Education. The Russian president will also hold a separate meeting with Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China Li Qiang to discuss trade and economic cooperation.
Putin plans to meet with Chinese engineer Peng Pai, who met the Russian president as a child during his first visit to China in 2000. This meeting will take place at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, where the Russian president stayed during his visit.
A gala reception will be held on behalf of Xi Jinping on Wednesday evening, and the last item on the agenda will be a tea conversation between Putin and the Chinese president. This informal meeting, to which four members of the delegation from each country have been invited, will be one of the most important events of the trip, according to the Kremlin.
Moscow hopes that the tea party with the Chinese president, a traditional part of Putin's visits to China, will last “as long as possible”, as this closed-door format allows the leaders to discuss the most important topics in a confidential and friendly manner. It is at this meeting that Putin and Xi Jinping will discuss current international issues.