Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Putin met in Samarkand on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit with the former telling his Russian counterpart that China was willing to make efforts with Russia to assume the role of great powers.
According to foreign media reports, the Thursday meeting was intended to portray the two countries’ strategic ties and show that Russia was not isolated despite western animosity. This meeting is also the first one since the start of the Russia-Ukraine crisis.
As reported by Xinhua News Agency, Chinese President Xi received a warm welcome from Uzbekistan president Shavkat Mirziyoyev, with it being the former’s first foreign tour since the outbreak of Covid-19.
Xi told Putin that China was willing to make efforts with Russia to assume the role of great powers, and play a guiding role to bring stability to the world.
Putin stated that attempts to create a unipolar world had become ugly and were totally “unacceptable”. He added that Russia appreciated China’s balanced position in the context of the Ukrainian crisis.
The Russian president also emphasized Moscow’s support for China on the Taiwan issue and said Russia adhered to the principle of One-China.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization conference takes place at a time when Putin is an outcast internationally especially by western powers as a result of his invasion of Ukraine.
Yuri Ushakov, the Kremlin adviser on international affairs, told reporters in Moscow this week that “all members of the SCO stand for a just world order”, further describing the summit as “against the background of large-scale geopolitical changes”.
