SCO Summit 2022: Putin, Xi Jinping sit across table with talks aimed against the United States

By Team Newsable | First Published Sep 16, 2022, 1:13 PM IST

The Russian President took a clear broadside at the United States, which has been leading efforts to support Ukraine and impose sanctions on Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping held their first face-to-face talks since the start of invasion to Ukraine, hailing their strategic ties in defiance of the West. Sitting across from each other at two long rounded tables, the two leaders met on the sidelines of a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in ex-Soviet Uzbekistan.

The meeting comes as a part of the Chinese leader's first trip abroad since the early days of the pandemic. For Putin, it was a chance to show Russia has not been fully isolated despite Western efforts.

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"China is willing to make efforts with Russia to assume the role of great powers, and play a guiding role to inject stability and positive energy into a world rocked by social turmoil," the Chinese leader told Putin at the talks.

Chinese state broadcaster CCTV also quoted Xi as saying that China was willing to work with Russia to support "each other's core interests".

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Putin took a clear broadside at the United States, which has been leading efforts to support Ukraine and impose sanctions on Russia. "Attempts to create a unipolar world have recently acquired an absolutely ugly form and are completely unacceptable," Putin said.

"We highly appreciate the balanced position of our Chinese friends in connection with the Ukrainian crisis," Putin told Xi, while reiterating Moscow's backing for China on Taiwan.

"We adhere to the principle of one China. We condemn the provocation of the US and their satellites in the Taiwan Strait," Putin said, after a US Senate committee on Wednesday took the first step towards Washington directly providing billions of dollars in military aid to Taiwan.

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Friday will be the main day of the SCO summit with sessions involving all the attending leaders. Putin is also set to hold talks with Erdogan and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Security was tight in Samarkand, a city of grand tiled mosques that was one of the hubs of Silk Road trade routes between China and Europe, with a huge police presence on the streets and armoured vehicles parked downtown.

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