China’s leader Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin are set to discuss the Russia-Ukraine war and other “international and regional topics” at a meeting, the Kremlin informed.
Jinping and Putin will meet at Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan this week. This is jinping’s first foreign trip since the pandemic. The meeting comes at a time tensions reign supreme between the West.
Xi has start his three-day tour in Kazakhstan, as he landed in the capital, Nursultan for his journey’s first leg. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit in Samarkand, will take place from September 15 to 16.
Kremlin foreign policy spokesman Yury Ushakov termed the meeting as ‘special’. He said, “Bearing in mind the specifics of the current international situation, this meeting, naturally, has special importance… The leaders are planned to discuss both the bilateral agenda and key regional and international topics.”
According to reports, Ushakov has called the meeting between the two leaders as “long-awaited personal contact”, the second one throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. While the first meeting between Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin was in February when the latter came in Beijing to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic Winer Games.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), created in 2001 by four former Soviet Central Asian states, has long been positioned by China and Russia as an alternative to Western multilateral organisations.
Ushakov further added that the meeting will “provide a good appraisal to the unprecedented high level of the trust-based bilateral strategic cooperation between Russia and China”. The discussion of problems relating to trade and economic cooperation, according to Mr. Ushakov, is particularly significant. He also said that “despite the challenging circumstances brought on by illegitimate Western sanctions, this collaboration has remained solid and has continued to pick up speed.”
The meeting came parallel with fresh clashes on the border between two member countries, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan wherein the latter borders China.
After touch sanctions on Russia following the war, China is keeping the west in puzzle by meeting the Russian leader. China had also declared, a year ago, about his “no limits” friendship with Russia.
