Few recent meetings had been as highly anticipated as the meeting of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
The Russian and Chinese leaders met on Thursday as Putin’s relations with the West continued to unravel over his war on Ukraine and as China’s military harassment of Taiwan seemed set to put Xi on a collision course with Taipei’s United States and European allies – sanctions being hinted as the first point of impact.
