Ukraine wants to join the European single market
Chinese President: Beijing is ready to work with Russia to advance mutual major interests
The Russian and Chinese presidents during their meeting on the sidelines of the summit of leaders of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Samarkand.
AFP
Chinese President Xi Jinping told his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin during their meeting on the sidelines of a summit in Uzbekistan yesterday that Beijing is ready to work with Moscow to "support our main mutual interests," Chinese state media said yesterday, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed And that his country wants to join the European single market, ahead of a decision on granting Kyiv full membership in the European Union.
The Chinese and Russian presidents met yesterday on the sidelines of a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Uzbekistan, in their first meeting since the start of the war in Ukraine, and in the Chinese president's first move abroad since the outbreak of the "Covid-19" epidemic.
Relations between Beijing and Moscow were rocky during the Cold War, but the two neighbors have clearly converged in recent decades to form a common front in the face of American influence.
In this context, Beijing did not condemn the Russian military operations in Ukraine, and blames the United States and NATO for the outbreak of the conflict.
"China is ready to work with Russia to provide strong support for issues related to our major mutual interests, and to deepen practical cooperation in trade, agriculture and other fields," Xi was quoted as saying by China's public broadcaster CCTV.
The Russian president condemned Western attempts aimed at establishing a "unipolar world," praising Beijing's "balanced position" on Ukraine, which neither condemned nor supported the Russian war on Ukraine.
This comes at a time when President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that
His country wants to join the European single market ahead of a decision on granting Kyiv full membership in the European Union.
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