Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Uzbekistan next week. The two leaders will meet during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit, to be held from September 15-16.
“In less than 10 days, our leaders will meet at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Samarkand,” Andrey Denisov, the Russian ambassador to China, told the Russian news agency TASS. He added that a “serious and comprehensive” meeting between Putin and Xi Jinping is being arranged, which “they have a lot to talk about”.
This will be Xi Jinping’s first trip abroad since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. is also the first time the two have met since the beginning of the war in Ukraine. The last time they were together was in February, when Putin visited China for the opening of the Winter Olympics in Beijing. As the Washington Post points out, during the visit, which took place weeks before the Russian invasion began, they declared an “unlimited” partnership, outlining a new international order not dominated by the West.
With the start of the war, Russia is increasingly isolated due to sanctions imposed by the West, which seeks to strengthen ties with Asian countries, in particular, China, which did not condemn the invasion of Ukraine.
This week, soldiers from both countries participated in joint military exercises. At the Vostok-2022 maneuvers, in the Russian Far East, they were present more than 50,000 soldiers from Russia and allied countries, including China.
The exercises were led by the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, General Valeri Gerasimov, and were attended by Putin. This year, the initiative had only a sixth of the military that participated in them four years ago. More than 300,000 soldiers were mobilized at Vostok-2018, making such maneuvers Russia’s biggest show of force since the Cold War period.
Source: Observadora
