Putin and Xi meet face to face for the first time since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine

Sep. 15 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The presidents of Russia and China, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, held their first face-to-face meeting this Thursday in the Uzbek city of Samarkand since the start of the war in Ukraine, triggered on February 24 by the invasion order given by the president. Russian.

During it, Putin conveyed to Xi that Moscow “appreciates the balanced position of Chinese friends in relation to the Ukrainian crisis.” “We understand your questions and concerns on the matter and during the meeting we will explain our position in detail, although we have already discussed this before,” Putin said.

Likewise, the Russian president has taken the opportunity to reiterate Moscow’s respect for the “one China” principle and has condemned “the provocations of the United States and its satellites in the Taiwan Strait”, given the recent tensions between Beijing and Taipei, according to has picked up the Russian news agency Interfax.

For his part, Xi has described his Russian counterpart as “an old friend” and has praised the firmness of bilateral ties, amid increased international pressure against both powers, as reported by the Bloomberg news agency.

The meeting took place on the margins of the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Uzbekistan. Xi’s visit to Samarkand marks her first trip abroad in more than two and a half years and comes after Russia and China underlined their “unlimited” friendship shortly before the start of the war in Ukraine.

Since the beginning of the invasion, China has shown its support for Russia and has presented the United States and NATO as responsible due to what it describes as military expansionism, while trade between the two countries has skyrocketed due to the increase in imports from the Asian giant to fill the gap caused by Western sanctions on Moscow.