It is a meeting that looks like a front against the West. The presidents of China Xi Jinping and Russia Vladimir Putin meet this Thursday in Uzbekistan for a regional summit, in full tensions exacerbated by the war in Ukraine but also by American diplomacy towards Taiwan.
The two presidents will be joined in the city of Samarkand, a key stop on the ancient Silk Road, by the leaders of India, Pakistan, Turkey, Iran and other countries for a summit two-day event of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). If the main meeting of this summit will take place on Friday, it is the bilateral meeting between the Chinese and Russian presidents this Thursday which will be the most scrutinized, their countries being at the heart of international diplomatic crises.
The Kremlin wants to turn its alliances towards Asia
For Vladimir Putin, who is trying to accelerate a pivot to Asia in the face of Western sanctions against Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine, this summit is an opportunity to show that Russia is not isolated on the scene world. Xi Jinping, who is making his first foreign trip to Central Asia since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, may further cement his stature as a top leader ahead of a Chinese Communist Party congress in October where he is seeking a third term. unpublished.
Their meeting also has an air of defiance thrown at the United States, which has taken the lead in sanctions against Moscow and military support for kyiv, and which has drawn the ire of Beijing with the visit of several American officials to Taiwan. “The Shanghai Cooperation Organization offers a real alternative to Western-oriented structures,” the Kremlin’s diplomatic adviser, Yuri Ouchakov, assured on Tuesday. It is the “largest organization in the world, comprising half the population of the planet” and it works for a “just international order”, he added.
Afghanistan also on the menu of discussions
The SCO, whose members are China, Russia, India, Pakistan and the former Soviet republics of Central Asia, was created in 2001 as a tool for political, economic and security cooperation competing with Western organizations . It is not a military alliance like NATO, nor a political integration organization like the European Union, but its members work together to address common security challenges and promote trade. The conflict in Ukraine, the situation in Afghanistan or even the unrest that has shaken several Central Asian countries in recent months should be among the main topics discussed.