We start in Tanzhin in China where a
series of world leaders have been
arriving for a regional security summit.
It's a gathering which features several
countries who have experienced growing
diplomatic tensions with the West in
general and the US in particular.
Vladimir Putin has made a rare trip
outside Russia. Bosow faces the threat
of new US sanctions if it fails to agree
a ceasefire in Ukraine with Donald
Trump's deadline. Also uh due at the
gathering, more than 20 world leaders,
Iran's president whose country has been
condemned by Washington for supporting
militant groups across the Middle East.
And India's Prime Minister Modi visiting
China for the first time in seven years.
India was hit by new US trade tariffs
this week. Donald Trump said it was a
response to India buying Russian oil and
weapons. Bodhi has already held a
bilateral meeting with China's President
Xi. Those talks seem to have gone well.
Chinese state media says the two leaders
agreed that relations between Delhi and
Beijing could be stable and farreaching.
Let's speak to Steve McDonald, our China
correspondent who is there for us. Hi
Steve. So just talk us through what's
been happening there.
>> Well, here in Tenzin, there's a lot of
excitement in this city about them
hosting this summit, the Shanghai
Cooperation Organization Summit. But I
think in news terms it could well be
these meetings on the sidelines of this
summit which get all the attention
especially for example and you mentioned
the one between Xiinping and Narendra
Modi. Now in a case of spectacular
timing the Indian leader has come here
just as the Trump administration has
whacked India with these 50% tariffs. So
India is looking around for other
potential economic partners. And here's
China saying, well, come on. It's about
time for us to patch up our differences.
Now, when they had their meeting this
morning, both sides said it was very
successful. And I'll tell you some of
what they've both uh were both saying to
each other, according to the official
readout. So, according to Xigin Ping, at
a time when the world is going through a
period of transformation, it's vital for
these two countries to be not only
friends, but good neighbors. And he used
this expression which he's used before
that it's also vital for the dragon and
the elephant to come together. Now this
has become like Xiinping's catchphrase
for relations between India and China
improving. As for Modi, he was much more
specific. He spoke about the agreement
which had been reached by the special
representatives of both of these
countries regarding border management.
Now this will be about this disputed
border area, remote border area which
has seen deadly clashes with involving
the soldiers of both of these countries.
They've had teams sitting down and
discussing this with a view to stopping
that from happening in the future. He
also said that direct flights would
resume between the two countries. I
think many people in other parts of the
world would be surprised to know that
there hadn't been direct flights between
China and India, but it just shows how
bad relations had been with no tourists,
no student exchanges and the like. Well,
they're going to sort of ratchet that up
again. And Modi also said that it was in
the interests of 2.8 billion people that
the two of them could get on along with
one another. And when you think about
it, it's quite true. I mean these are
the world's two most populous nations
and if they can cooperate with one
another the potential is obviously
enormous. Modi also said if they could
get along with one another this would be
for the benefit of the entire global
community. So, it sounds like it was a
sort of a bit of a love fest between the
two of them and certainly much better
than what they, you know, would have uh
expected for years ago when relations
were pretty sour between China and
India.
>> Steve, thank you very much for that.
We're going to speak now to Anastasia
Shapina, president of the geopolitics,
geo economics think tank, Eastern
Circles. Thank you for coming on the
program.
>> Thank you. Uh so let's start with this
relationship between China and India
then Steve just outlining some of the
history and some of the seeming
development how significant do you think
it is? I think that this mo between the
two strategic rivals, right,
historically shows us the new stage of
development of the Shanghai Cooperation
Organization and the ambition especially
that China has for it as a new
potential, you know, one of the
potential new centrifying kind of forces
uh to bring together uh the countries
from both western and uh uh western kind
of camp and the global south around a
new architecture of global governance
challenging the Bradenwood system set up
by the United States after the World War
II as China is um um is basically uh
uniting it with the 80th anniversary of
the end of World War II and uh it is
especially um telling if you look at
back at the history of this Shanghai
cooperation organization within which
the meeting the bilateral meeting is
taking place between Modi and CI and It
started in the 90s as a a union of five
countries around uh two issues fighting
drug trafficking and terrorism across u
the Tajik China border and the border
with the borders that China shares with
Central Asia uniting you know four
central Asian countries and Russia and
China and then evolved in 2001 into what
is now known as Shanghai Cooperation
Organization which had as an ambition
this more and of broader security access
uniting rounded already now 10 nations
and today we see between 2001 and uh
2024
and today it's like a new stage we see
at Shahan cooperation organization such
you know countries which are strategic
rivals as China and India coming to a
push and really being interested in
cooperation together for the reasons of
course uh which now go beyond security
reasons and
>> can I can I just ask you just because we
we're vaguely short of time here I just
want to get to the role of Russia. How
significant is Russia's role here? Mhm.
Uh for Russia unlike for India which is
like it's a historic kind of moment of
moment but now for Russia this is more
one of the meetings they're going to be
there's going to be also a bilateral
meeting between C and Putin uh coming up
and this is just one in a series of
meetings uh which have been already over
a couple of dozen over the last 25 years
and uh the um the meetings which
basically underscore the close strategic
alliance between Russia and China. China
is and this is just one of the settings
and these meetings have taken place in
numerous settings and the alliance is uh
has been deepen deepening since you know
the early 2000s since the construction
of the ESCO pipeline the oil pipeline
between China and Russia but also
especially deepened since 2022 as China
underpins Russia's war effort in Ukraine
and without China's economic partnership
with Russia uh Russia's being able to
reorient its oil experts to China and
also to a lesser extent to India and
also uh build a strong economic ties
reorient from west to east. Um without
this Russia would not be able to lead
the war today. So this is just a
sequence uh of the strategic partnership
and alliance which is being built.
>> Anastasia Shappakina, thank you very
much for coming on the program. Thank
you. Thank