• China, Russia pledge deeper cooperation, mutual support.
• Putin expected to visit China in first half of this year.
• Lavrov says visit likely during week beginning May 18.
  

Russia is ready to increase energy supplies to China ahead of an expected visit by President Vladimir Putin, Russian news agencies quoted Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying on Wednesday at a news conference in Beijing.

The agencies quoted Lavrov as saying that the visit would take place in the first half of the year, while the Vedomosti newspaper cited sources as saying it would be during the week beginning May 18.

President Xi Jinping met Lavrov on Wednesday, assuring Moscow of China’s friendship and saying that China and Russia must trust and support each other, deepen cooperation, and defend each other’s interests.

US President Donald Trump is also scheduled to meet Xi during his first visit to China in eight years on May 14 and 15.

Lavrov told the news conference that Russia was ready to help China and other countries affected by the Middle East crisis with energy supplies.

“Russia can, of course, make up for the resource shortfall facing both China and other countries that are interested in working with us on an equal and mutually beneficial basis,” Lavrov told the news conference in China.

Lavrov also said that Russia and China had all the necessary means to avoid reliance on what he described as US efforts to disrupt global energy markets through conflict in the Middle East.

“Thank God, China and Russia have every capability, including those already in use, reserve capacity, and planned capacity, to avoid depending on such aggressive gambits, which undermine the global economy,” he said.

US President Donald Trump, whose war and immigration policies have been condemned by Pope Leo, reiterated his criticism of the religious leader on Tuesday night.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump urged that “someone please tell Pope Leo” about the killings of protesters by Iran and that “for Iran to have a Nuclear Bomb is absolutely unacceptable.”

The US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28. Iran responded with its own strikes on Israel and Gulf states with US bases.

US-Israeli strikes on Iran and Israeli attacks in Lebanon have killed thousands and displaced millions.

Iran does not have nuclear weapons while the US does. Israel is widely believed to be the only Middle Eastern country with nuclear weapons.

While Western countries have long believed that Iran wants a nuclear bomb — or at least the ability to make one very quickly — Tehran has always denied that, citing its membership of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Trump’s comments come after Pope Leo warned earlier in the day of the risk of democracies sliding into “majoritarian tyranny”.

The first US pope, Leo wrote in a letter issued by the Vatican about the use of power in democratic societies, and said democracies remained healthy only when they were rooted in moral values.

The pope has criticised Trump’s decision to launch the war against Iran, saying God rejects the prayers of those who launch wars and have “hands full of blood”.

The pope termed Trump’s threat this month to destroy the Iranian civilisation as unacceptable and previously declined to join the US president’s so-called “Board of Peace” initiative for Gaza.

The religious leader has also urged a “deep reflection” on the way migrants are treated in the US while Trump has pursued a hardline immigration policy.

On Sunday, Trump called the pope “weak” and “terrible” on crime and foreign policy issues.

Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Tuesday her government had suspended a defence cooperation deal with Israel, reflecting frayed ties between previously close allies as the conflicts in the Middle East continue.

Meloni’s right-wing government has been one of Israel’s closest friends in Europe, but in recent weeks it has criticised its attacks on Lebanon, which have killed hundreds and injured thousands.

Israel also fired warning shots last week at Italian troops serving in Lebanon under a UN mandate, causing damage to a vehicle.

“In light of the current situation, the government has decided to suspend the automatic renewal of the defence agreement with Israel,” Meloni said during a visit to Verona, northern Italy.

A source close to the matter, who requested anonymity, said Meloni took the decision on Monday with her foreign and defence ministers, Antonio Tajani and Guido Crosetto, as well as Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini.

A spokesperson for Israel’s foreign ministry declined to comment.

Opposition had called for the suspension

Meloni’s announcement was a surprise in that it marked a shift from a previously cautious stance on Israel. The opposition had asked the government to suspend the agreement.

“We had been calling for this for some time, along with other progressive forces,” the leader of the centre-left Democratic Party, Elly Schlein, said, adding Italy should also support the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement.

Italy’s memorandum with Israel, signed in 2003 by the government of then Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, entered into force in 2006 and is subject to automatic renewals every five years unless one of the parties withdraws.

It foresees Israeli-Italian cooperation to “increase their respective defence capabilities” and spans fields including procurement, training and the “import, export and transit of defence and military equipment”.

As diplomatic tensions have risen, Rome last week summoned the Israeli ambassador to protest over the incident involving Italian troops in Lebanon, then on Monday, the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu summoned the Italian ambassador “to discuss the situation in Lebanon”.