BEIJING, June 25 : Chinese President Xi Jinping will hold talks with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin via video link on June 28.

China Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying announced the meeting on Friday (June 26).

Meanwhile, The Kremlin also said ion Friday it regrets the decision of the European Union (EU) to cancel its potential summit with Russia, according to the TASS news agency.

"We were informed that a number of countries spoke out against this dialogue at yesterday's summit," TASS reported, citing Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

Peskov said that Russian President Vladimir Putin remains interested in building relations between Moscow and Brussels and this continues to be relevant for Russia.

France and Germany proposed to hold a summit with Putin, yet this decision was met with rejection from some EU members at a meeting held on Thursday in Brussels.

EU leaders on Friday failed to agree on the way forward on relations with Russia, with most of them rejecting a proposal by France and Germany to hold a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, following marathon talks that went through Thursday night.

The idea was floated following US President Joe Biden's meeting with Putin in Geneva, with French President Emmanuel Macron saying a summit with the Russian leader would be "a dialogue to defend our interests."

But in a statement issued on early morning Friday after the long EU leaders' meeting, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told journalists: "We couldn't agree today that we would meet immediately at management level, that is, at executive level." She added: "Personally, I would have liked a more courageous step here."

The 27 EU leaders need to unanimously agree on restarting talks with Russia for such a meeting to take place.

In the official conclusions issued following the meeting, the European Council said in a statement that the European Union "is committed to a united, long-term, and strategic European approach" based on its values, principles and interests and condemned the limitations on fundamental freedoms in Russia and the shrinking space for civil society.

The European Council said it expected the Russian leadership "to demonstrate a more constructive engagement and political commitment and stop actions against the EU and its Member States, as well as against third countries" and called on Russia "to fully assume its responsibility in ensuring the full implementation of the Minsk agreements as the key condition for any substantial change in the EU's stance."

 - Xinhua