Beijing&nbsp;(Reuters) -&nbsp;China&nbsp;will&nbsp;host&nbsp;its third&nbsp;Belt&nbsp;and&nbsp;Road&nbsp;Forum&nbsp;next week, its foreign ministry said on Wednesday, a President Xi Jinping signature event that President Vladimir Putin is due to attend on a rare trip abroad.
The conference in&nbsp;Beijing&nbsp;on&nbsp;Oct.&nbsp;17-18&nbsp;marks the 10th anniversary of the&nbsp;Belt&nbsp;and&nbsp;Road&nbsp;Initiative (BRI) championed by Xi, with representatives from many developing countries, notably from Latin America&nbsp;and&nbsp;Africa, expected to attend.
Putin attended the two previous&nbsp;forums, in 2017&nbsp;and&nbsp;2019,&nbsp;and&nbsp;the Kremlin said in September he had accepted an invitation to the&nbsp;forum&nbsp;and&nbsp;for talks with Xi.
The Russian leader is not known to have gone abroad&nbsp;since the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant for him in March over the deportation of children from Ukraine.
Putin is expected to visit Kyrgyzstan on Thursday, before the&nbsp;Beijing&nbsp;meeting. Neither Kyrgyzstan nor&nbsp;China&nbsp;are members of the ICC, which was established to prosecute war crimes.
The BRI is a plan for global infrastructure&nbsp;and&nbsp;energy networks that&nbsp;China&nbsp;launched a decade ago to connect Asia with Africa&nbsp;and&nbsp;Europe through land&nbsp;and&nbsp;maritime routes.
But critics see the plan - billed as recreating the ancient Silk&nbsp;Road&nbsp;to boost global trade - as a tool for&nbsp;China&nbsp;to spread its geopolitical&nbsp;and&nbsp;economic influence.
Putin, in a message to Xi this month, said their talks would deepen Russian-Chinese ties "for the benefit of our friendly peoples, in interests of ensuring security&nbsp;and&nbsp;stability on the Eurasian continent&nbsp;and&nbsp;throughout the world".
China&nbsp;had signed&nbsp;Belt&nbsp;and&nbsp;Road&nbsp;cooperation documents with more than 150 countries&nbsp;and&nbsp;more than 30 international organizations, the foreign ministry said.
Italy, the only Group of Seven country to sign up, has criticised the 2019 decision by a previous government to join the BRI scheme, with its foreign minister recently saying trade between Italy&nbsp;and&nbsp;China&nbsp;had not improved.
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(Reporting by Liz Lee, Bernard Orr&nbsp;and&nbsp;Ethan Wang; Additional reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman&nbsp;and&nbsp;Miral Fahmy)

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China to host Belt and Road forum in Beijing Oct 17-18