Putin And Xi To Meet At SCO Summit In Kazakhstan

MNI London: Wires reporting confirmation from Chinese state media that Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold a bilateral meeting on the margins of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit which got underway in Astana, Kazakhstan today.

• The Putin-Xi meeting will be their second this year and comes after Putin signed a mutual defence deal with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un - an arrangement, which could bolster North Korea's nuclear programme and destabilise the region, that may not sit comfortably with Beijing.
• The Financial Timesreported on June 26, in analysis of the Russia-DPRK deal: "This would mean if Pyongyang felt treaty-bound to become involved in one of Russia’s wars — such as the invasion of Ukraine — Moscow’s enemies could strike North Korea. That in turn might trigger Beijing and Pyongyang’s mutual defence treaty, putting China on the spot."
• The SCO, a format devised to enable border talks between China and the former Soviet republics in Central Asia following the collapse of the Soviet Union, has grown in prominence and scope in recent years.
• This year, the group is expanding to include Belarus, following the inclusion of Iran at last year's summit. The broader mandate for the group is broadly seen as a move to grow the bloc as an additional counterweight to Western-led institutional organisation, similar to the concurrent expansion of the BRICS grouping.
• CNN notes: "Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi... is skipping the event, pointing to unease among some members about the direction the SCO is headed."