SAMARKAND, Uzbekistan
\nRussian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping met for their first face-to-face talks since the start of the conflict in Ukraine on Thursday, hailing their strategic ties in defiance of the West.
\nSitting across from each other at two long rounded tables and flanked by aides, the two leaders met on the sidelines of a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in ex-Soviet Uzbekistan.
\nThe meeting was part of Xi\u2019s first trip abroad since the early days of the pandemic and for Putin a chance to show Russia has not been fully isolated despite Western efforts. \u201cChina 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,\u201d Xi told Putin at the talks.
\nChinese state broadcaster CCTV also quoted Xi as saying China was willing to work with Russia to support \u201ceach other\u2019s core interests\u201d. Putin took a clear broadside at the United States, which has been leading efforts to support Ukraine and impose sanctions on Russia.
\n\u201cAttempts to create a unipolar world have recently acquired an absolutely ugly form and are completely unacceptable,\u201d Putin said. \u201cWe highly appreciate the balanced position of our Chinese friends in connection with the Ukrainian crisis,\u201d Putin told Xi, while reiterating Moscow\u2019s backing for China on Taiwan. \u201cWe adhere to the principle of one China. We condemn the provocation of the US and their satellites in the Taiwan Strait,\u201d 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.
\nIt was the first in-person meeting between the two leaders since Putin saw Xi in early February for the Winter Olympic Games, days before the Russian leader launched the military offensive in Ukraine.
\nThe Kremlin has touted the SCO summit in the ancient Silk Road city of Samarkand as showing there is an \u201calternative\u201d to Western dominated international institutions.
\nThe SCO — made up of China, India, Pakistan, Russia and the ex-Soviet Central Asian nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan — was set up in 2001 as a political, economic and security organisation to rival Western institutions. The leaders of those countries were to attend, as well as Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus.
\nPutin met with the leaders of Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan earlier Thursday, as well as with Raisi and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. With both Raisi and Sharif he said ties were \u201cdeveloping positively\u201d, while the Iranian leader told Putin that US-backed sanctions on both countries would only make their relationship \u201cstronger\u201d.
\n\u201cThe Americans think whichever country they impose sanctions on, it will be stopped, their perception is a wrong one,\u201d Raisi said. For Putin, the summit comes at an important time, as his forces face major battlefield setbacks in Ukraine and amid a continued Western push to make Russia an international pariah.
\nFor Xi, it is an opportunity to shore up his credentials as a global statesman ahead of a pivotal congress of the ruling Communist Party in October.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SAMARKAND, Uzbekistan Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping met for their first face-to-face talks since the start of the conflict in Ukraine on Thursday, hailing their strategic ties in defiance of the West. Sitting across from each other at two long rounded tables and flanked by aides, the two leaders met on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":283909,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-283889","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n