By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Chinese President Xi Jinping on Sunday welcomed world leaders in the northern port city of Tianjin ahead of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit.
Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin was among world leaders that have arrived China for the summit which seeks to challenge US-led, western-dominated blocs. Leaders of more than two dozen nations are attending the summit.
The Chinese and Russian leaders, who are closely allied under what they have termed a “limitless” partnership, discussed Putin’s recent meeting with Donald Trump, according to a Kremlin official, who gave no further details.
The bilateral meeting was one of several for Xi on Sunday, who is hosting the annual Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit.
The SCO is a 10-member bloc of Eurasian nations, and the summit is also being attended by the leaders of 16 observer or “dialogue partner” nations.
Xi personally welcomed several leaders including the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, and the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, before the delegates attended a formal reception.
Xi told the welcome reception that in the past century there had been a “significant increase in instability, uncertainty and unpredictable factors”, and that the SCO had become an “important force in promoting the building of a new type of international relations and a community with a shared future for mankind”.
Footage published by Russian state media showed Xi and Putin, who arrived in Tianjin with an entourage of senior politicians and business representatives, warmly greeting each other at a photocall before calling in an interpreter for a lengthy and animated conversation.
Putin and several other leaders are expected to stay on for a military parade in Beijing on Wednesday to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the second world war, which China refers to as the war of resistance against Japanese aggression. The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, is also expected to attend.
The SCO is a key part of Beijing’s push for stronger multilateral alternatives to western or US-led blocs such as Nato.
Putin told the Chinese state news agency Xinhua on Saturday that the SCO meeting would “consolidate solidarity” among the Eurasian nations and “help shape a fairer multipolar world order”.
The goal appears to have been helped by the upheaval brought by Trump’s tariff regime and other foreign policy moves. Modi and Xi’s meeting took place five days after Washington imposed punishing 50% tariffs on Indian goods due to Delhi’s purchases of Russian oil.
It is Modi’s first visit to China in seven years, and comes amid efforts by China and India to rebuild trade ties and resolve long-running Himalayan border disputes.
“We are committed to progressing our relations based on mutual respect, trust and sensitivities,” Modi said after meeting Xi.
Xi said China-India ties could be “stable and far-reaching” if both sides focused on viewing each other as partners instead of rivals, state media reported.
