International Relations | Huge security arrangements accompany the meeting between Putin and Xi in Uzbekistan

Foreign countries|International relations

Russian president Vladimir Putin and the President of China Xi Jinping arrived Thursday morning in Samarkand, southeastern Uzbekistan, to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting in the historic Silk Road city. Putin flew in from Moscow, while Xi flew in from Kazakhstan, where he visited on Wednesday.

The main day of the summit of the eight-member Shanghai Cooperation Organization is Friday, but Putin and Xi will hold one-on-one talks on Thursday. According to the Kremlin, the presidents will discuss, among other things, the situation in Ukraine.

Meeting and the security arrangements for the summit are top-notch, reports news agency AFP. Land access to the city of over half a million inhabitants was already closed several days earlier, and commercial flights to Samarkand airport have been cancelled.

The city’s streets and squares were almost empty on Wednesday, except for a large number of security forces. For example, all schools in Samarkand are closed for Thursday and Friday.

It is the first time in three years that Putin is attending a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Xi, on the other hand, has been abroad at all for the last time just before the corona lockdown of Wuhan province in January 2020, when he visited Myanmar.

Putin and Xi last met in early February in Beijing. According to a press release issued later by the Kremlin, the friendship between China and Russia was found to be “boundless” at the time. However, China has not, for example, taken an official position on Russia’s attack on Ukraine.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization, founded in 2001, is an economic and political forum whose members include, in addition to China and Russia, India and Pakistan, as well as the former Soviet republics of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

In addition, Iran has announced that it is considering joining the organization. President of Iran Ebrahim Raisi arrived in Samarkand already on Wednesday and met the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev.

The Kremlin bulletin according to Putin has several one-on-one meetings in Samarkand, but the presidential administration did not say with whom.