Commitment to promoting peace stressed

China is glad to see Russia and the United States maintaining contact, improving their bilateral relations and advancing the political settlement process of the Ukraine crisis, President Xi Jinping said.

Xi made the remark during a phone conversation on Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov said on Thursday that Russia and the US had reached an agreement on a meeting between the two countries' presidents in the coming days.

During the phone talks on Friday, Putin briefed Xi on Russia's views on the current situation of the Ukraine crisis and the recent contacts and communications between Russia and the US.

Putin said that Russia highly appreciates the constructive role China has played in the political settlement of the crisis.

Noting that "there are no simple solutions to complex issues", Xi elaborated on China's principled position.

No matter how the situation changes, China will stick to its consistent position and keep promoting peace and talks, Xi said.

Putin said the Russia-China comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination will not change under any circumstances, and Moscow is willing to maintain close communication with Beijing.

During the call, the two leaders spoke highly of the high-level political mutual trust and strategic cooperation between China and Russia.

They agreed to work together to promote greater development in bilateral relations.

During the phone conversation, the two leaders spoke about the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, as China will host the SCO summit in North China's Tianjin from Aug 31 to Sept 1.

Xi and Putin agreed that both sides will collaborate closely to ensure the successful preparation of the SCO Tianjin Summit, making it a summit of friendship, unity with fruitful outcomes, and to advance the high-quality development of the SCO.

Leaders of more than 20 countries, including all the 10 member countries of the SCO, will attend the SCO Tianjin Summit, Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said on Friday.

The summit will also bring together heads of 10 international organizations. This will be the largest SCO summit since the organization's founding in 2001, Guo said.

According to recent media reports, Putin, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian are planning to attend the summit.

"We believe that with the concerted effort of all parties, the Tianjin summit will be a gathering of solidarity, friendship and fruitful results, and the SCO will enter a new stage of high-quality development featuring greater solidarity, coordination, dynamism and productiveness," Guo said.