Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday attended the summit of a security grouping created by Moscow and Beijing to counter Western alliances.
Putin and Xi joined the leaders of other countries that are members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) at its annual meeting in Astana.
The grouping was established in 2001 by China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to promote regional security and economic cooperation. It was later joined by India, Pakistan and Iran. Belarus yesterday joined the SCO.
Photo: AFP
Observer states and dialogue partners include Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
Besides Putin and Xi, and summit host Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, attending yesterday’s meeting are Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Zhaparov and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
Iran is still choosing a successor to former president Ebrahim Raisi, killed in a helicopter crash in May, with a runoff election today Friday, so acting president Mohammad Mokhbar would attend.
Other guests of the SCO include Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who is visiting Central Asia, was also expected to attend.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sent his foreign minister. Indian media reports speculated the recently re-elected Modi was busy with the parliament session that began last week.
For Putin, the summit offered another venue to demonstrate the failure of Western efforts to isolate Russia over its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
At a meeting with Xi on Wednesday, Putin hailed the SCO as “one of the key pillars of a fair, multipolar world order,” and said ties between Moscow and Beijing are “experiencing the best period in their history.”
It marked their second meeting in as many months following Putin’s visit to China, which underscored Beijing’s political support for Moscow amid Western sanctions and China’s role as a top market for Russian oil and gas. Russia also has relied on Beijing as a main source of high-tech imports to keep its military machine running.
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) launched a week-long diplomatic blitz of South America on Thursday by inaugurating a massive deep-water port in Peru, a US$1.3 billion investment by Beijing as it seeks to expand trade and influence on the continent. With China’s demand for agricultural goods and metals from Latin America growing, Xi will participate in the APEC summit in Lima then head to the Group of 20 summit in Rio de Janeiro next week, where he will also make a state visit to Brazil. Xi and Peruvian President Dina Boluarte participated on Thursday by video link in the opening
China has built a land-based prototype nuclear reactor for a large surface warship, in the clearest sign yet Beijing is advancing toward producing the nation’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, according to a new analysis of satellite imagery and Chinese government documents provided to The Associated Press. There have long been rumors that China is planning to build a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, but the research by the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in California is the first to confirm it is working on a nuclear-powered propulsion system for a carrier-sized surface warship. Why is China’s pursuit of nuclear-powered carriers significant? China’s navy is already
IT’S A DEAL? Including the phrase ‘overlapping claims’ in a Chinese-Indonesian joint statement over the weekend puts Jakarta’s national interests at risk, critics say Indonesia yesterday said it does not recognize China’s claims over the South China Sea, despite signing a maritime development deal with Beijing, as some analysts warned the pact risked compromising its sovereign rights. Beijing has long clashed with Southeast Asian neighbors over the South China Sea, which it claims almost in its entirety, based on a “nine-dash line” on its maps that cuts into the exclusive economic zones (EEZ) of several countries. Joint agreements with China in the strategic waterway have been sensitive for years, with some nations wary of deals they fear could be interpreted as legitimizing Beijing’s vast claims. In 2016,
RSS