Al Jazeera’s Katrina Yu, reporting from Beijing, said Chinese president Xi Jinping’s visit to Moscow next week is all about “promoting peace between Ukraine and Russia”.

“China’s foreign ministry says that Beijing’s stance during the conflict has been consistent, that all it wants is the two sides to sit down and talk. It released a peace plan to this effect last month outlining this push for dialogue, this push for negotiations,” Yu said.

Yu explained that the visit serves two “goals” for Beijing, one of which will show public support for Russia and of deepening its economic ties with Russia.

“Beijing is [also] going there to promote itself as a global leader and a mediator,” Yu said.

“Xi Jinping is capitalising on the recent success Wang Yi, Beijing’s top diplomat brokering a peace deal between Saudi Arabia and Iran and Xi’s very much going to point out to the international community that speaking to both Russia and Ukraine is something that Beijing can do and the US can not,” she added.