Putin, Xi Meet for High-stakes Talks in Challenge to West

FILE - Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, and Russian President Vladimir Putin pose for a photo at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit in Qingdao in eastern China's Shandong Province on June 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)
FILE - Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, and Russian President Vladimir Putin pose for a photo at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit in Qingdao in eastern China's Shandong Province on June 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)
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Putin, Xi Meet for High-stakes Talks in Challenge to West

FILE - Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, and Russian President Vladimir Putin pose for a photo at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit in Qingdao in eastern China's Shandong Province on June 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)
FILE - Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, and Russian President Vladimir Putin pose for a photo at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit in Qingdao in eastern China's Shandong Province on June 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)

Russia's Vladimir Putin and China's Xi Jinping gather with other Asian leaders in the ancient Silk Road city of Samarkand from Thursday for a regional summit touted as a challenge to Western global influence.

Xi and Putin will be joined by the leaders of India, Pakistan, Turkey, Iran and several other countries for the meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in the Uzbek city on Thursday and Friday, AFP said.

The main summit day will be Friday, but it is a meeting of the Russian and Chinese leaders on Thursday that will be the most closely watched.

For Putin, the summit is a chance to show that Russia cannot be isolated internationally, at a time when Moscow's forces are facing major battlefield setbacks in Ukraine.

For Xi -- on his first trip abroad since the early days of the coronavirus pandemic -- it is an opportunity to shore up his credentials as a global statesman ahead of a pivotal congress of the ruling Communist Party in October.

And for both leaders, the summit will be a chance to thumb their noses at the West, especially the United States, which has led the charge in imposing sanctions on Russia over Ukraine and angered Beijing with recent shows of support for Taiwan.

"The SCO offers a real alternative to Western-centric organizations," Kremlin foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov told reporters in Moscow this week.

"All members of the SCO stand for a just world order," he said, describing the summit as taking place "against the background of large-scale geopolitical changes".

- Tight security, empty streets -
Entry to Samarkand, a city of grand tiled mosques that was one of the hubs of Silk Road trade routes between China and Europe, was restricted in the days ahead of the summit, with its airport shut to commercial flights. 

The streets and even its famed markets stood largely empty as AFP journalists visited on Wednesday, and schools were to be closed for the two days of the summit.

Security was tight across the city, with a huge police presence on the streets and armored vehicles parked downtown.

The SCO -- made up of China, Russia, India, Pakistan and the ex-Soviet Central Asian nations of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan -- was set up in 2001 as a political, economic and security organization to rival Western institutions.

It is not a formal military alliance like NATO or a deeply integrated bloc like the European Union, but its members work together to tackle joint security issues, cooperate militarily and promote trade.

The summit's main joint session will be on Friday but much of the focus will be on bilateral talks.

As well as Xi, Putin will meet Thursday with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, then on Friday with Indian premier Narendra Modi and Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Iran is an SCO observer state and Erdogan has been a key broker in deals between Russia and Ukraine on issues like grain shipments.

- 'No-limits' friendship -
It was not clear who Xi might meet separately, though talks with Modi would be their first since 2019, after relations between China and India turned frosty over deadly fighting in 2020 on their disputed Himalayan border.

Xi arrived in Kazakhstan on Wednesday for the start of his Central Asian tour, holding talks with President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.

Formerly Cold War allies with a tempestuous relationship, China and Russia have drawn closer in recent years as part of what they call a "no-limits" relationship acting as a counterweight to the global dominance of the United States.

Xi and Putin last met in Beijing in early February for the Winter Olympic Games, days before Putin launched the military offensive in Ukraine.

Beijing has not explicitly endorsed Moscow's military action, but has steadily built economic and strategic ties with Russia over the six months of the conflict, with Xi assuring China's support of Russian "sovereignty and security".

Russia has in turn backed China over Taiwan, calling US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to the island this summer a "clear provocation".

There were more signs of ties being bolstered in recent weeks.

Beijing sent hundreds of troops to take part in joint military exercises in Russia's Far East, and Moscow recently announced that China would be switching from US dollars to yuan and rubles to pay for deliveries of Russian natural gas.



EUROPE GAS-Prices Rise on Lower Wind Speed, Russian Gas Uncertainty

Model of natural gas pipeline and Gazprom logo, July 18, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
Model of natural gas pipeline and Gazprom logo, July 18, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
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EUROPE GAS-Prices Rise on Lower Wind Speed, Russian Gas Uncertainty

Model of natural gas pipeline and Gazprom logo, July 18, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
Model of natural gas pipeline and Gazprom logo, July 18, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

Dutch and British wholesale gas prices rose slightly early on Monday, as they traded in a narrow range, caught between low wind speed and uncertainty over Russian gas flows to Europe when the Ukraine gas transit deal expires at the year-end.

The benchmark front-month contract at the Dutch TTF hub edged up by 0.84 euro to 44.65 euros per megawatt hour (MWh), or $14.3/mmBtu, by 1016 GMT, while the day ahead contract was up 1.08 euro at 44.38 euros/MWh.

In Britain, the day-ahead contract was 2.25 pence higher at 110.25 p per therm.

"The spot and the curve (prices) are still supported by the prospect of a non-renewal of the Russia-Ukraine gas transit deal," analysts at Engie's EnergyScan said in a daily note, according to Reuters.

The situation with European countries that buy Russian gas is very complicated and requires increased attention, the Kremlin said on Monday, after talks between President Vladimir Putin and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico.

Fico said on Sunday that Putin had confirmed Russian willingness to continue to supply gas to Slovakia, even though the Slovak leader said this was "practically impossible" once a gas transit agreement between Russia and Ukraine expires.

Russia's Gazprom said it would send 42.1 million cubic metres of gas to Europe via Ukraine on Monday, a volume in line with recent days.

Meanwhile, wind generation will drop sharply today in France and Germany and the confidence for high wind output is reduced, supporting gas for power demand, EnergyScan analysts said.

In Britain, peak wind generation is forecast at 19.1 gigawatts (GW) on Monday, falling to 15.6 GW on Tuesday, Elexon data shows.

In the European carbon market, the benchmark contract was up 0.22 euro at 67.91 euros a metric ton.