Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin have reaffirmed their strategic alliance amid growing global uncertainty, as they met on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Kyrgyzstan. In their first meeting since May, Xi told Putin on Monday that he was “happy” to meet again. He told the Russian leader, whose country is engaged in a fifth year of war on Ukraine, that bilateral ties between Beijing and Moscow have grown “more solid”.
That should continue despite increased “uncertainty and unpredictability in the international order,” he added. China has consistently denied giving Russia material support for its assault on its neighbour. Xi told Putin that there are “even brighter” prospects ahead for relations between Beijing and Moscow, although “the amount of uncertainty and unpredictability in the international order has obviously increased,” Xi said.
Putin agreed, saying that “cooperation is successfully developing on all fronts”. The two-day SCO summit in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, marks the 25th anniversary of the regional security and economic grouping. Over a dozen heads of state are attending, including Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, along with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as a dialogue partner.
The summit takes place four-and-a-half years into Moscow’s Ukraine invasion and six months into the war between the United States and Iran. Putin and Xi have previously used SCO summits to promote their vision of a multipolar world and present a united front against the West. Due to Western sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine, Russia’s economy has become increasingly dependent on China.
That has seen Western countries call on Beijing to pressure Moscow to end its offensive. However, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian media that the two leaders largely discussed economic relations, and only talked on the Ukraine war “in passing”. Putin also met with Modi, with the leaders arriving in the same car for scheduled talks.
Modi said New Delhi is ready to work for an end to the conflict in Ukraine. The Russian leader said Moscow was “following the path” towards a resolution, without elaborating. Peace talks, brokered by the United States, remain stalled.
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