INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Xi Jinping thanked Vladimir Putin and said that in China, Putin was extremely popular
considers a close friend and who gave Xi ice cream as a present, Chinese state media reported.The discussion of senior leaders' private
lives is extremely rare in China, and the exact birth dates of most of them are not revealed publicly, as they are considered a state
secret.State television showed pictures of Xi and Putin holding up champagne glasses to toast Xi's birthday at the hotel he is staying at in
Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, where they are both attending a regional summit.While Putin gave Xi Russian ice cream - the flavour was
not mentioned - Xi gave Putin back some Chinese tea, the report said.Xi thanked Putin and said that in China Putin was extremely popular, it
added.Pictures on Chinese state television's website showed the two men inspecting a white cake decorated with red and blue confectionary
flowers with the words written on it, in somewhat shaky red-coloured Chinese characters, "good fortune double six".It was not immediately
clear if Xi ate any of the cake.(This story has not been edited by TheIndianSubcontinent staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated
