Vladimir Putin claimed on Monday that the “understandings” he reached with Donald Trump during their summit in Alaska have opened a way to peace in Ukraine.
The Russian leader, who is attending the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) forum in China’s Tianjin City, said he would discuss the Alaska meeting with leaders attending the summit.
Mr Putin was seen chatting and laughing with host Xi Jinping and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi at the summit. Mr Modi held the Russian leader’s hand as they walked towards Chinese president Xi, before sharing a car ride with Mr Modi to their venue for bilateral talks.
Presidents Xi and Putin took turns to take a swipe at the West during the summit that aimed at putting Beijing front and centre of regional relations. Chinese officials have touted the SCO summit as the largest in the bloc’s history, with around 20 leaders attending from countries across Asia and the Middle East.
The candid footage of the three leaders at the summit captured a powerful narrative of deepening alliances between India, China, and Russia – the key members of the Brics bloc. Their growing camaraderie seems poised to challenge the Western grip on global trade in a pushback against the American president’s punitive tariffs.
President Xi slammed “bullying behaviour” from certain countries, in a veiled reference to the US. “The security and development tasks facing member states have become even more challenging,” he added in his address.
“Looking to the future, with the world undergoing turbulence and transformation, we must continue to follow the Shanghai spirit… and better perform the functions of the organisation,” Mr Xi said.
The Russian leader used his speech to defend Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine, placing the blame squarely on the Nato security alliance. Mr Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and has made clear his intention not to stop fighting until he has annexed large swathes of the country, including the eastern Donbas. He euphemistically referred to the war as a “crisis” in his speech at the SCO.
“We highly appreciate the efforts and proposals from China and India aimed at facilitating the resolution of the Ukrainian crisis,” Mr Putin told the forum. “The understandings reached at the recent Russia-US meeting in Alaska, I hope, also contribute toward this goal,” he added.
“In order for a Ukrainian settlement to be sustainable and long-term, the root causes of the crisis, which I have just mentioned and which I have repeatedly mentioned before, must be eliminated,” Mr Putin said.
Part of the source of the conflict “lies in the ongoing attempts by the West to bring Ukraine into Nato,” Mr Putin reiterated. He said the West’s attempts to draw Ukraine into Nato pose a “direct threat to Russia’s security”.
“A fair balance in the security sphere” must be also restored, he said, shorthand for a series of Russian demands about Nato and European security.
He said he had already detailed to Mr Xi on Sunday the outcomes of his talks with the US president Trump, and the work “already underway” to resolve the conflict. Despite his ongoing invasion of Ukraine, Mr Putin later in his speech said his support of UN principles, including respect for the independence of states, was “true and unshakable”.
“Its charter includes the key principles of the supremacy of international law, the right of nations to self-determination, sovereign equality, non-interference in internal affairs, respect for the independence and national interests of each state,” he said.
“These principles are true and unshakable to this day. The SCO’s activities are built on them.”
Mr Trump last week claimed that him and Mr Putin got along during the August summit and suggested the war may continue “a little longer.”
“I don’t know. We got along,” he told The Daily Caller. “You saw it, we’ve had a good relationship over the years, very good, actually. That’s why I really thought we would have this done. I would have loved to have had it done. Maybe they have to fight a little longer. You know, just keep fighting – stupidly, keep fighting.”
India’s Modi met Mr Putin on the sidelines of the summit on Monday and hailed bilateral ties between the two countries. Washington slapped New Delhi with 50 per cent tariffs last week as a punitive measure for purchasing Russian oil, which the Trump administration says helps finance Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Mr Modi was often seen warmly embracing and holding hands with the Russian president, a clear display of solidarity in the face of Trump’s tariffs.
“Even in the most difficult situations, India and Russia have always walked shoulder to shoulder,” Mr Modi said. “Our close cooperation is important not only for the people of both countries but also for global peace, stability and prosperity.”
China and India are by far the biggest purchasers of crude from Russia, the world’s second-largest exporter.
The SCO summit, which includes 16 additional countries as observers or “dialogue partners,” began on Sunday, just days before a grand military parade in Beijing to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of Second World War.
