According to BBC, Daily Telegraph, Washington Post.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/16/putin-xi-russia-china-alliance/
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is often viewed by the Western media as a counterbalance to the Western blocs - primarily the EU and NATO. The Russian president sees in the leaders of the countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization partners who are more favorable to him and to Russia's actions. Indeed, the bloc's largest countries, India and China, have not openly condemned Russian actions in Ukraine until recently, despite pressure from the West. However, at the last summit there were signs that this position is changing.
Changes were noticeable even in the "choreography" of the summit. Firstly, now Putin did not make his negotiators wait for his arrival, “observers noted that Putin did not have his typical aura of superiority at the summit,” writes the British Daily Telegraph. Secondly, at an evening meeting “without ties” organized by On Thursday, the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev was absent from the leaders of China and India.
As the Washington Post writes, Putin's meeting with world leaders at the SCO summit "sends a signal to Russians about his continued important role on the world stage." "But if Putin took part in the dinner and posed for a group photo, Xi Jinping decided to refuse both the dinner and the photograph."
At Putin's meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the contradictions were quite clear. Modi opened the meeting with a speech about the need for "democracy, diplomacy and peace" and welcomed the opportunity to "discuss progress towards peace." In a dialogue with the Russian President, Modi bluntly stated that "the current era is not an era of wars."
“I know your position on the conflict in Ukraine, your concerns that you constantly express,” Putin answered him. “We will do everything to ensure that this stops as quickly as possible. process, announced that he wants to achieve his goals by military means, as they say, "on the battlefield."
At Putin's meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, observers were primarily interested in the fact that the Russian president publicly acknowledged that China had "questions and concerns" about the Ukrainian conflict. Earlier, China refrained from criticizing Russia on international platforms, which Putin noted when he thanked Xi for his "restrained stance."
"We highly appreciate the balanced position of Chinese friends in connection with the Ukrainian crisis, we understand your questions and your concerns on this matter, and during today's meeting, of course, I will explain in detail our position on this issue, although we have spoken about this before," Putin said.
The conclusion drawn by international analysts is quite predictable: “China is still quite skillfully balancing its interests in order to maintain relations with Russia. It is a big neighbor, a like-minded state, a common old enemy of the United States. And at the same time, he understands how important what is left of the relationship between China and the West at the moment, and how important is access to American and European technology markets and investments.
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