Thailand’s Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin has started a four-day visit to China. Today (Tuesday), he will attend an international forum on China’s Belt and Road Initiative in Beijing.

This is Srettha’s first visit to China since he took office in August. He is scheduled to hold talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday.

Srettha also plans to meet with the chairman of Chinese telecom equipment giant Huawei, and other business leaders,in a bid to attract investment to Thailand.

The Thai leader will also hold a side-line meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is also attending the forum.

This follows the Cabinet decision on Monday to extend the visa-free period for Russian tourists, from 30 to 90 days, to promote tourism.

An informed source told Thai PBS World that the Srettha-Putin meeting will be on Wednesday afternoon.

It will be the first meeting of the two leaders. They are among dozens of leaders who are participating in the Third Belt and Road Initiative Cooperation Forum.

Thailand is among only a few countries with a visa-free agreement with Russia. In 2003, both countries signed the visa waiver agreement. Over one million Russian tourists visited Thailand during the first nine months of this year.