Leaders of Russia and China Meet at a Central Asian Summit in a Show of Deepening Cooperation

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with Gazprom Neft CEO Alexander Dyukov at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia July 2, 2024. Sputnik/Vyacheslav Prokofyev/Pool via REUTERS

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping met Wednesday for the second time in as many months as they visited Kazakhstan for a session of an international group founded to counter Western alliances.
Putin and Xi last got together in May when the Kremlin leader visited Beijing to underscore their close partnership that opposes the US-led democratic order and seeks to promote a more “multipolar” world.
Now they’ll be holding meetings amid the annual session of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization taking place Wednesday and Thursday in the Kazakh capital of Astana.
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.
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.”