Sergey Guneev/Sputnik/Reuters
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping attend bilateral talks on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Astana, Kazakhstan, on July 3, 2024.
Hong Kong
CNN
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Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping met on Wednesday at a meeting of the Eurasian Security Zone, which the two leaders are promoting as a counterweight to Western powers, and hailed their nations’ growing cooperation.
In opening remarks ahead of a bilateral meeting with Xi on the sidelines of the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Kazakhstan, Putin said Russia-China relations were experiencing the “best period in history” and should be seen as a force for “stability” in the world.
“Russian-Chinese cooperation in global affairs serves as a major stabilizing factor on the international stage, and we continue to further strengthen it,” Putin said.
The Russian president also highlighted the role Moscow and Beijing played in “scaffolding” the SCO’s founding in 2001. The two countries have been pushing to transform the SCO from a regional security club focused on Central Asia into a geopolitical counterweight to the West led by the United States and its allies.
Belarus is a staunch ally of Russia and helped it launch an invasion of Ukraine in 2022. It is the latest autocratic state expected to join the SCO after Iran became a full member last year.
“As the number of participating countries increases, and as Belarus becomes a full SCO member tomorrow, the SCO has gained a greater role as one of the important pillars of a fair multipolar world order,” Putin told Xi on Wednesday.
The meeting was the second in-person meeting between the two leaders in just two months, following Putin’s visit to Beijing in May, and came shortly after the Russian president signed a landmark defense agreement with North Korea.
Despite much consternation in the United States and Europe, China and Russia have deepened political, economic and military ties since Presidents Putin and Xi Jinping declared an “unrestricted” partnership in February 2022, when Putin visited Beijing just weeks before the country’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
China has overtaken the European Union to become Russia’s largest trading partner, providing a vital lifeline to a Russian economy that is under heavy sanctions. The two nuclear-armed neighbors also continue to conduct joint military drills with Iran.
Meanwhile, the United States has accused China of providing Russia with dual-use materials to bolster Russia’s military-industrial complex in its attacks on Ukraine, a charge China denies.
In his opening remarks on Wednesday, Xi told Putin that China and Russia should “continue to uphold our original aspirations” of “enduring friendship” even in the face of an “international situation full of turmoil and change.”
Xi also praised the “unique value” of China-Russia relations and urged the two countries to make renewed efforts to safeguard their “legitimate rights and interests” and “fundamental norms governing international relations.”
“China and Russia should continue to strengthen comprehensive strategic cooperation, oppose external interference, and jointly safeguard regional peace and stability,” Xi said, according to a statement from China’s Foreign Ministry.
The SCO’s expansion comes after another bloc of major emerging economies, the BRICS, led by China and Russia, more than doubled its membership last year and significantly expanded its global influence.
Both moves are widely seen as part of a broader effort by Xi Jinping and Putin to create a new world order that is no longer dominated by the West.
Xi said on Wednesday that China supports Russia’s role as this year’s chair of BRICS in integrating the Southern Hemisphere, preventing a “new Cold War” and opposing hegemonism, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.
