China’s Xi hosts ‘old friend’ Putin, North Korea’s Kim in challenge to West
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping ahead of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit 2025 in Tianjin, China on September 1, 2025.
China’s President Xi Jinping convened his Russian and North Korean counterparts in Beijing for the first time on Tuesday, a show of solidarity with countries shunned by the West over their role in Europe’s worst war in 80 years.
Xi hosted Vladimir Putin for talks at the Great Hall of the People and then at his personal residence, calling him his “old friend”. A few hours later, Kim Jong Un’s armoured train was spotted by a Reuters witness arriving in the Chinese capital.
