Desperate Putin forced to beg for Xi Jinping’s scraps

Desperate Putin forced to beg for Xi Jinping’s scraps

we’ve seen him go caping hand to Kim Jong on in North Korea for for ammunition um uh you know earlier on this year with as foreign minister lavro now we’ve seen him go cap and hand back to get North North Korean troops um to go and and support him um so so he’s not in a good position well Philip first of all just just tell us a little bit about the the Shanghai cooperation organization could it be fairly described the sort of China and Russia’s equivalent of NATO well it it it it is it isn’t some people have described it that way you know it’s it’s been in existence under its current name since 2001 um before that it was known as the Shanghai 5 so you’ve got Russia China Kazakhstan kyrgistan and Tajikistan so it’s it’s trying to bring a level of um you connection and and primarily military connection between the STS Russia and China because it it AB it abots onto them so um you know it’s it’s a it’s a big organization and you that that was formed in 1996 changed its name in 2001 to Shanghai Corporation organization um and when you look at it from a a landmass perspective and your population perspective and GDP perspective you know it covers you know about 80% of Eur Asia um it’s got uh in population terms you know given that China’s in there and Russia’s in there but 40% of the global popul population um and you as as a as a grouping of people it controls if you were to add it all up and this this goes back to the early 2000s um um uh it it probably had 20% of the of of global GDP you that that’ll have adjusted itself slightly since Russia’s reinvasion of Ukraine but it’s a it’s a powerful organization very powerful organization indeed so what’s in it for China and Russia what do they see as the points of this organization well the it it’s cooperation between China and Russia it it gives them a mechanism to sit down you know historically they have been um not necessarily the best of bed fellows um and there therefore anything that allows them to come together and to talk you there’s there’s shared borders between Russia and China and they’re shared borders with um the the other members that that are there um it’s going to be more important now because of what Vladimir Putin is trying to do in build his international relations up with regard to his operations inside um Ukraine and it’s something that’s going to be really quite important to him um from a Chinese perspective it’s what can they get out of it as there is with everything you know economics drives all Chinese decision-making but of course you these very large land masses have huge amounts of Natural Resources they’ve got um not just oil but mineral wealth and and everything else as well so you both China and Russia have got their eyes on that and you know given the borders given the history given everything else it’s providing that um ideal military stability that’s there but you you get you get the likes of you Kazakhstan that’s in there and kazakhstan’s in a very interest interesting position you they have maintained um international relations with most countries around the world and countries who are at War so you they’re they’re hosting Putin um today because they’ve just taken over as as the chair of this grouping um they’re hosting Xi Jinping but they will also um remain in in good negotiating stance with um zalinski and with the United States and with the EU and and elsewhere so you there’s there’s a potential for them in the future potentially to be a bit of a a bridge when it comes to negotiations and all the rest of it and interestingly turkey is there president edan’s going to be there they’re a so-called dialogue partner of the SEO but he’s previously said he does want at some point full membership what should we read into that especially given that turkey is a NATO member and has been since the 1950s well you know every nation state looks after themselves first and foremost um erdogan as we know well you know he’s a a NATO member he’s been after EU membership for years the EU keep refusing um you primarily because Germany won’t um give into them Jo joining the EU um and you know he sees himself as this bridge between Europe and Asia and he is Geographic graphically you know the you turkey is split between the European and the Asian continents and therefore you this grouping is probably the biggest and most influential um on the Asian Continental side of side of things when you add that together with the European link up in up into Russia so um you I’m not surprised that he’s trying to become a member of it I don’t think that it would be um a problem him being a member of that and if the EU allowed him in to be a member of the EU and I don’t think it’s a problem him being a member of NATO there there’s so much to play for in here and you military Stakes um you know Putin is out for as much help as he can get and he’ be trying to do that a lot of these countries their their military supplies their their traditional military equipment all the rest has been old Soviet it’s come from Russia Russia is not in ability not in a position to supply that anymore and these countries are going to be getting slightly concerned about what the future is looking like for them you China will be looking at opportun ities to you take over the the military supply Market from Russia Russia will be trying to protect its Supply Market in the future by probably making promises that it knows it can’t keep um so there’s there’s there’s a lot to be discussed and there’s a lot of influence will be going on around the margins of the of of of the meetings and last year the summit ended with a statement that criticized the expansion of missile defense systems didn’t specifically mention Ukraine but it was largely interpreted as being a reference to to Western military support for Ukraine didn’t the war in Ukraine is likely to dominate proceedings this year I think it’ll I think it’ll be Central if not to the open discussion certainly to the the the bilaterals and trilateral and multilaterals and behind closed doors discussions that are going on I think that will be because it’s at the Forefront of Putin’s mind you Putin’s not in a good position at the moment you he’s he’s having to go go cap and hand you know we we saw him with Xi Jinping recently on a state visit to China we’ve seen him go cap andan to Kim Jong-un in North Korea for for ammunition um uh you know earlier on this year with his foreign minister lavro now we’ve seen him go cap and hand back to get North North Korean troops um to go and and support him um so so he’s not in a good position you know the the the stands will be carefully watching what’s going on because you depending in the outcome could um influence their wider stability so you know it’s it’s uh a cooperation of bed fellows that are are together out of necessity and they’re watching for what could destabilize their particular interests I think and just finally how would you sum up the current relationship between President she of China and President Putin of Russia uh I think um Putin is uh hoping to get what he can from XI XI is using his relationship with Putin to get the best results that he can for China economically but also militarily you know he will be using um the war um in Ukraine as a test bed for China Chinese Technologies he will be learning his lessons um that he can apply to the the restructuring of his military capabilities um and he will be gaining as much economic Advantage whether that be um effectively buying or getting control of Russian natural resources um or looking at um been able to take over what was traditional Russian defense markets elsewhere he will give the overt impression that he’s supporting Putin in in many ways but it’s what’s in it for me Putin desperate so he will see what he wants to see out of it and see any cooperation as being um something that’s that’s positive even though if he drilled underneath the surface it may not be

“He’s not in a good position.”

Putin is now so desperate he is begging for scraps from China and North Korea.

📻 Listen to Times Radio – https://www.thetimes.co.uk/radio

📍 Subscribe to our channel – http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTjDhFuGXlhx9Us0gq0VK2w?sub_confirmation=1

🗞 Subscribe to The Times https://www.thetimes.co.uk/subscribe/radio-3for3/

📲 Get the free Times Radio app https://www.thetimes.co.uk/radio/how-to-listen-to-times-radio/app