LChinese Presidents Xi Jinping and Russian Vladimir Putin posed on Friday as a counterweight to Western influence, during a regional summit bringing together several countries with strained relations with the United States.
The two leaders are headlining a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a group that intends to compete with Western institutions, in Samarkand (Uzbekistan).
This summit comes at a time when Moscow and Beijing have extremely strained relations with the United States, because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and American support for Taiwan.
At the main session of the SCO summit, Xi called on the gathered leaders to “work together to promote an international order that moves in a more just and rational direction.”
“It is necessary to promote the common values of humanity, to abandon zero-sum games and the policy of creating blocs,” he continued. He did not name any country, but Beijing generally uses this vocabulary to denounce the United States and its close allies.
The Russian president, for his part, welcomed the “increasing role of the new centers of power” which, according to him, “is becoming more and more obvious”.
Putin said cooperation between SCO member countries, unlike the West, was based on “unselfish” principles.
The SCO, whose members are China, Russia, India, Pakistan and four former Soviet republics in Central Asia, was established in 2001 as a platform for cooperation competing with Western organizations.
Putin in search of allies
The statements of Messrs. Xi and Putin illustrate the turbulence that has shaken international relations for several months, in particular since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at the end of February.
Russia has since been targeted by heavy Western economic sanctions and is increasingly turning to Asia for economic and diplomatic support.
Mr. Putin has thus multiplied since Thursday the bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the summit.
In a Thursday meeting with Mr. Xi, Mr. Putin thanked his Chinese counterpart for his “balanced position” on Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, while promising him “explanations” for his “concerns”. .
On Friday, the Russian president is to meet with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose country is buying more and more hydrocarbons from Moscow despite Western sanctions.
He will then see Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with whom he wants to discuss an agreement that has unblocked Ukrainian grain exports affected by the war.
Then will come an interview with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, after clashes between Azerbaijan and Armenia which left more than 200 dead and raised fears of a new war in the Caucasus, Moscow’s traditional zone of influence.
Silk Roads
Mr. Xi, who is making his first trip abroad to Central Asia since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, hopes to further strengthen his stature as a top leader ahead of a Chinese Communist Party congress in October where he is seeking a new mandate.
The choice of Central Asia as the first foreign destination in more than two years illustrates above all the importance that Beijing attaches to this region, which is crossed by the “new silk roads”, a titanic project carried out by Mr. Xi for strengthen trade links with the world.
However, several Central Asian countries have experienced troubles this year, such as deadly riots in Kazakhstan or clashes on Friday between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, whose leaders are present in Samarkand.
Ahead of the summit, Xi visited Kazakhstan on Wednesday, promising to help it “safeguard its sovereignty” as the traditionally Moscow-allied country worries about Russian ambitions after invading Ukraine.
Mr. Xi also spoke with Mr. Erdogan and Iranian leader Ebrahim Raisi on Friday, as the Iranian nuclear negotiations are slipping.
No meeting has been announced, however, between MM. Xi and Modi, both of whom are nuclear powers, have been going through a period of tension since deadly border clashes in 2020.
09/16/2022 14:36:11 – Samarkand (Uzbekistan) (AFP) – © 2022 AFP