Vladimir Putin received the red carpet treatment as he arrived in China for a regional security summit hoping to counter Western influence over global affairs.
The Russian leader arrived in the northern Chinese port city of Tianjin on Sunday for a rare four-day visit to Moscow’s largest trading partner and was met with a warm welcome by top-ranking city officials. Not long after arrival, Putin and Chinese president Xi Jinping held a sideline meeting in which they discussed recent contacts between Moscow and Washington, Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov told Russian media without elaborating further.
They have met for a two-day meeting in which 20 leaders across Central Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and the Middle East will gather for a powerful show of Global South solidarity.
It is believed to be the largest gathering of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) since the group was established in 2001 among six Eurasian nations.
The security-focused bloc has now expanded to 10 permanent members and 16 dialogue and observer countries in recent years, growing its remit from security and counter-terrorism to economic and military cooperation.
Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said that ties between China and Russia are at their “best in history” and have become the "most stable, mature and strategically significant among major countries".
Narendra Modi has also joined the summit, marking the Indian prime minister’s first visit to China in seven years.
Analysts have suggested the two global leaders are seeking to align against pressure from the West, days after US president Donald Trump imposed a punitive total of 50 per cent tariffs on Indian goods, partly in response to New Delhi’s purchase of Russian oil.
Both Modi and Xi have agreed that India and China are development partners, not rivals, as they discussed ways to improve trade ties amid global tariff uncertainty.
Xi is expected to use the summit to showcase what a post-American-led international order could look like, offering a high-profile diplomatic boost for Russia as the country smarts from sanctions imposed over its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russia is on the brink of recession, caused by trade curbs and the cost of the war.
A day before his visit, Putin blasted Western sanctions in a written interview with China's official Xinhua news agency, saying Moscow and Beijing jointly opposed “discriminatory” sanctions in global trade.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that the war-torn country is planning “deep strikes” – a reference to using long-range missiles either to strike Russia or occupied Ukraine, days after Moscow unleashed a devastating airstrike on Kyiv which killed 23 and hit the British Council building.
“We will continue our active operations in exactly the way needed for Ukraine’s defence. The forces and resources are prepared. New deep strikes have also been planned,” Mr Zelensky said on X (Twitter) after meeting Ukraine’s top general, Oleksandr Syrskyi, without giving further details of the plans.
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