A smiling Vladimir Putin reunited with his ‘old friend’ Xi Jinping in Kazakhstan on Wednesday for a session of an international group founded to counter Western ‘hegemony’.
‘Russian-Chinese relations, our comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation, are experiencing their best period in history,’ Putin said, reaffirming Russia‘s relationship with China.
In his brief opening comments, the Chinese premier called Putin his ‘old friend’ and said Sino-Russian relations were at a ‘high level.’
‘In the face of the turbulent international situation and external environment, the two sides should continue to uphold the original aspiration of friendship for generations to come,’ Xi said.
The pair met on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in the Kazakh capital of Astana – a regional political and economic bloc that the two leaders see as a counterweight to US ‘hegemony’ in international affairs.
Xi Jinping (left) referred to Putin (right) as his ‘old friend’ ahead of the summit on Wednesday
Dealing with terrorism will be a central talking point at the summit in Kazakhstan this year
Putin attends a meeting with Kazakh President as leaders meet to discuss security concerns
Rescuers carry the body of a person killed during a missile attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, in May
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization was set up in 2001 by China and Russia to discuss security concerns in Central Asia and the wider region.
Other members are Iran, India, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Observer states and dialogue partners include Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
Putin today hailed the group as ‘strengthening its role as one of the key pillars of a fair multipolar world order’ in opening remarks of a meeting with Xi that were published on Russian state TV.
For Putin, the meeting is about ‘prestige and the symbolic optics that he’s not alone,’ Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, said.
Indeed, the Russian leader on Wednesday had multiple meetings with other leaders on the sidelines of the summit, all diligently aired by Russian state TV.
The SCO also helps China project its influence, especially across Central Asia and the Global South.
Xi called for ‘bridges of communication’ between countries last week and wants to further promote China as an alternative to the U.S. and its allies.
Besides Putin and Xi, and summit host President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, other leaders attending include Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of Pakistan, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev of Uzbekistan, President Emomali Rakhmon of Tajikistan, and President Sadyr Zhaparov of Kyrgyzstan.
President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus will attend because his nation is becoming a full member.
Iran is still choosing a successor to President Ebrahim Raisi, killed in a helicopter crash in May, with a runoff election Friday, so acting President Mohammad Mokhbar will attend.
Other guests of the SCO include President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan.
Also present will be U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, who is visiting Central Asia.
Guterres wants ‘to position the U.N. as an inclusive organization that’s talking to all the big clubs,’ said Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center.
For host Kazakhstan and the other Central Asian nations, the meeting is a way to further their cooperation with bigger, more powerful neighbors.
Kazakhstan, for instance, frequently engages with both neighboring Russia and China, while also pursuing links with the West, with visits this year from U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and British Foreign Secretary David Cameron.
Countering terrorism will be a key focus for the summit.
Russia had what it has called two terrorist attacks this year, with more 145 people killed by gunmen at a Moscow concert hall in March, and at least 21 people were killed in attacks on police and houses of worship in the southern republic of Dagestan in June. In the March violence, the U.S. warned Russian officials about the possibility of an attack – information that was dismissed by Moscow.
The SCO is not a collective security or economic alliance, and there are ‘significant security differences between its members,’ said Nigel Gould-Davies, a senior fellow for Russia and Eurasia with the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London and a former British ambassador to Belarus.
The ‘principal value’ of the organization lies in the optics of non-Western countries gathering together, he added.
Ukrainian servicemen ride a T-72 tank in the Donetsk region in June amid the Russian invasion
Taiwanese armoured vehicles roll down a street in Kinmen on May 24 as China warned its leadership was pushing it into ‘a perilous situation of war and danger’
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey meets with Putin at the SCO summit in Astana
Members of the delegations, led by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping, hold talks on the sidelines of the SCO in Kazakhstan on Wednesday
Putin gestures alongside Erdogan during their meeting at the summit on Wednesday
Gabuev agreed, saying the SCO is a place for conversation rather than a platform where ‘collective decisions are made, implemented and have an impact.’
This year, close Moscow ally Belarus will become a full member of the organization, and its admission indicates how Russia wants to bolster blocs of non-Western countries.
Gould-Davies said the SCO is raising its profile ‘by growing its membership rather than by deepening its cooperation.’
Guterres may use the meeting to talk to Putin about how Russia is ‘disrupting the coherence of the U.N.,’ Gabuev said. Russia has vetoed U.N. Security Council sanctions on monitoring North Korea and a vote on stopping an arms race in outer space.
With Guterres unlikely to visit Moscow, the Astana meeting is likely his best chance to speak to Putin, Gabuev added.
There could be ‘a lot of sideline discussions on Ukraine, as it is a big issue which concerns all of us,’ a senior Kazakh official told The Associated Press.
The official was not authorized to talk publicly, and thus spoke on condition of anonymity.
Gabuev said Putin will try to show there’s a ‘big club of countries’ that are ‘ambivalent’ toward the war in Ukraine.