Xi Jinping met his internationally isolated Russian counterpart in Beijing on Wednesday against the backdrop of China’s biggest diplomatic event of the year, underlining the close relationship between two leaders amid the war in Ukraine. The Chinese president, addressing delegates at the belt and road initiative (BRI) forum, spoke out against international sanctions during his opening speech. “Ideological confrontation, geopolitical rivalry and bloc politics are not the choice for us, but we stand against economic sanctions, economic coercions, and decoupling and supply chain disruptions,” Xi said. The US Commerce Department…
Tag: Vladimir Putin
Xi Jinping welcomes ‘dear friend’ Vladimir Putin to Beijing
The Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, has welcomed his “dear friend” Vladimir Putin to Beijing, kicking off a multilateral summit overshadowed by the Israel-Hamas war. Beijing this week hosts representatives of 130 countries for a forum on Xi’s vast trade and infrastructure project, the belt and road initiative (BRI). At the top of the guest list is the Russian president, who is on his first trip to a major global power since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine threw his regime into international isolation. Analysts say the invitation of Putin to Xi’s flagship…
The Guardian view on ties between North Korea and Russia: bad news, and not only for Ukraine | Editorial
North Korea is adept at grabbing attention through both rhetoric and weaponry. On Friday it announced that it had launched its first “tactical nuclear attack submarine”, though the South Korean military said it did not appear to be operational. The most important development of recent days, however, is the report that Kim Jong-un will soon visit Russia, to discuss weapons sales with Vladimir Putin. Moscow has also proposed trilateral naval drills with China. An old but never easy three-way relationship is picking up again. Mr Kim’s grandfather rose to power…
Putin’s collection of oddball allies grows by the day. It’s time the west got tougher | Simon Tisdall
Vladimir Putin must be feeling fairly desperate if he’s relying on Kim Jong-un for friendship and support. There’s a reason why North Korea’s unpredictable dictator is among the world’s most ostracised leaders. Nobody likes him and he don’t care, as the saying goes. Yet Russia’s despised, isolated war-criminal president is in much the same leaky boat these days, slowly sinking, calling out for help. After being forced to duck the Brics and G20 summits for fear of arrest, humiliated Putin’s consolation prize is a possible meeting with Kim in Vladivostok…
Putin defends invasion of Ukraine in Brics summit address
Vladimir Putin has defended Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and sought to rally leaders of the Brics nations meeting in South Africa to the Kremlin’s side. In a prerecorded video message aired on Tuesday to the leaders of Brazil, India, China and South Africa, Putin repeated his earlier unfounded claims that the west was responsible for the war in Ukraine. “Our actions in Ukraine are dictated by only one thing – to end the war that was unleashed by the west and its satellites against the people who live in the…
Putin says Brics should become trading bloc representing ‘global majority’
Vladimir Putin has told a summit of the Brics group of countries in South Africa, that it should become a trading bloc representing the “global majority”. However, differences among the group – comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – have become apparent at the summit over accepting new members, and whether to turn Brics into a geopolitical counterweight to the west. Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, insisted on Tuesday that it was not the group’s aim to compete with western institutions. “We do not want to…
Putin and Xi are the Laurel and Hardy of statesmen – but it’s no laughing matter | Simon Tisdall
It must be tough, being a dictator, when your diktats are ignored, thwarted and scorned. Vladimir Putin is a sad case in point. He ordered the glorious reintegration of Ukraine into his imaginary Russian empire. What he got was an existential crisis that he couldn’t control. China’s president, Xi Jinping, is another paramount leader with dictatorship issues. Xi presumes to exercise supreme control, channelling Mao Zedong like a card-carrying Communist party Zeus – yet repeatedly messes up. Xi’s signature tune could be the chorus to Moby’s Extreme Ways: “Then it…
The Guardian view on China and Ukraine: beware great expectations | Editorial
Straddles are, by their nature, uncomfortable positions to maintain. So it isn’t surprising that China’s attempt to hold together conflicting interests on the war in Ukraine – maintaining its “no limits” partnership with Russia, without damaging its relationship with western nations and its tarnished global brand too greatly – has proved awkward. Attention increased when its special envoy for Eurasian affairs, Li Hui, joined talks in Jeddah last weekend, having avoided similar talks in Copenhagen earlier this summer. European officials described China’s involvement as “active” and said that it “appeared…
Kremlin denies China’s president urged Putin not to use nuclear arms in Ukraine
The Kremlin has denied a report that the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, had personally warned his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, against using nuclear weapons in Ukraine. “No, I can’t confirm it,” Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters on Wednesday when asked about a Financial Times report that said Xi delivered the message when he visited Moscow in March. Peskov said the two countries had issued statements at the time on the content of their talks, calling all other reports about Xi’s state visit to Moscow “fiction”. Since the start of…
Russia is more united than ever, Putin tells allies after failed mutiny
Vladimir Putin has said that Russia remains “united as never before” in the wake of the failed mutiny by the Wagner mercenary group and claimed the country continued to flourish in the face of heavy western sanctions over his invasion of Ukraine. In an address from the Kremlin to a virtual gathering of leaders from the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a group founded by Russia and China to counter western influence, the Russian president attempted to rebuff any suggestion that he had been weakened by last week’s chaotic but short-lived…