Well, let's go to China now. A two-day
summit involving Russia, India, and a
host of other nations. Our Asia
correspondent Helen Anne Smith is in
Tanzin with the latest.
Well, look, you might not have heard of
this summit, but it is a gathering of
some of the most populous, the most
influential, the most powerful countries
uh in this part of the world. And the
guest list is such that it sometimes
raises some eyebrows in the west. We
have leaders here uh from Russia, from
Iran, from Pakistan, from Myanmar, from
Bellarus, from India. Uh and they are
all sharing a table uh metaphorically
and literally uh last night and today uh
discussing broadly security and
development issues. This morning has
been the key event uh the key leaders
meeting and in all of the staging last
night and today, there is absolutely no
doubt as to who the guest of honor here
is and that is Vladimir Putin. He was
the one who had lingering conversations
with President Xi Jinping, the host. Uh
he was the one that uh alongside Shei
led the other leaders into dinner. And
in his speech at that leaders meeting uh
today, some really interesting details.
Of course, uh he focused on his war in
Ukraine. The fact uh that as he says and
has said many times before that it was
not Russia that started it. He says it
was a western back coup. But one of the
interesting details that I think uh
those in America will be paying
attention to is that he did say that he
will be briefing other leaders here
about what happened in that summit in
Alaska with Donald Trump where Donald
Trump was trying to forge that peace. So
uh really putting to bed any hopes that
America might have had that the likes of
China etc will not have the opportunity
to weigh in on that matter. So that is
really important in this moment. Just a
quick note about Xi Jinping's speech as
well. uh you always have to read between
the lines with the Chinese speeches.
They can be uh quite wordy, a little
difficult to decipher, but there was
lots of talk about working against power
politics, working against hedgemony. No
uh guesses, no secrets as to who that is
hinting at. Uh and it's just worth
saying that the leaders here don't have
an enormous amount in common, but they
all do share at least a suspicion if if
not outward distaste for Donald Trump
and Americanism. And there is a sense
that China positioning itself as a new
type of global leader