According to the Kremlin, the Russian leader will also hold contacts during his stay in the Asian giant with the leaders of India, Iran, Turkey and, possibly, North Korea.Putin will meet on Tuesday in Beijing with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, with whom he will discuss, among other things, relations with the United States, a meeting in which Defense Minister Andrei Belousov will also participate.
China-India axis, crucial for the Kremlin
Putin will participate on Monday in the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), an organization created by China and Russia that has accepted India, Pakistan, and Iran into its fold in the last ten years. The meeting will serve as an excuse to present a common front against the unilateral measures of the White House, especially in the commercial field, where Trump uses tariffs as a tool of pressure. Furthermore, Putin will have the opportunity to personally thank Xi and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for their commitment to imports of Russian crude oil despite threats from Washington. The US administration ultimately did not punish China as both countries have declared a truce in their trade war, but this week it did introduce a second 25% tariff against India for its purchases of Russian oil.Petrorubles to continue the war
Delhi initially reduced its imports threefold, but just before the recent visit of the head of Indian diplomacy to Moscow, it was learned that it had contracted new shipments of Russian oil for the coming months. Beijing has also increased its crude oil purchases, although never to the point of totally replacing India, which receives a third of all its imports from Russia. Yes, although Russia has used the Arctic route to circumvent Western sanctions on the ‘shadow fleet’, bilateral trade with China fell by 8% in the first half of the year, something that had not happened in a long time. These revenues are fundamental to the Russian state, which needs them to continue fighting in Ukraine just as the national economy grew in the first half barely above 1% compared to 4.2% last year.Reunion with Kim
Putin will also have the opportunity to meet again with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, with whom he held a historic summit in Pyongyang in 2024, on his first visit to the hermit kingdom in a quarter of a century. In the last two years, North Korea has been the main supplier of weapons and ammunition to the Russian Army, to which must be added the thousands of troops who participated in the liberation of the Kursk region.You may be interested in: Zelensky warns that Russia is preparing a new large-scale offensive
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Meanwhile, for Kim, the new alliance with Moscow is crucial, as it includes a mutual defense clause in case of aggression, something the Kremlin, for example, never signed with Iran. Trump, who has already expressed the desire to meet again with the communist leader, is aware that Kim has Putin’s military support.Kim has insisted in recent months that his country will continue to support Russia with all its might so that it wins its war with the neighboring country.
