Reuters reports, “In a show of solidarity with the
aggressors in Europe's worst war in 80 years, China's Xi Jinping will convene
with his Russian and North Korean counterparts for the first time as Donald
Trump and other Western leaders watch from afar”.
It continues, “Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un's visit to
Beijing for a massive military parade this week underscore the
Chinese president's influence over authoritarian regimes intent on redefining
the Western-led global order, while Trump's isolationist stance strains
long-standing US alliances”.
It says, “The gathering of what Western analysts have dubbed
the 'Axis of Upheaval' could build on a mutual defence pact signed by Russia
and North Korea in June 2024, and a similar alliance between Beijing and
Pyongyang, an outcome that may alter the military calculus in the Asia-Pacific
region”.
Kim crossed into China early on Tuesday aboard his special
train, en route to the capital Beijing. Xi and Putin, meanwhile, gathered at
the Great Hall of the People for a meeting with Mongolia's leader expected to
touch on a vast gas pipeline project and bilateral talks.
Putin thanked his "dear friend" Xi for the warm
welcome and said the close communication showed Russia's relations with China
were at an "unprecedentedly high level", according to a video of the
talks posted on the Kremlin's official Telegram messaging app.
"We must continue to take a clear stand against
hegemonism and power politics," Xi told a gathering of more than 20
leaders of non-Western countries at a summit on Monday, a thinly veiled swipe
at his geopolitical rival across the Pacific Ocean.
Xi also held talks with Indian Prime Minister
Narendra Modi on Monday, resetting strained bilateral ties, as Trump ratcheted
up trade pressure on New Delhi over its purchases of Russian oil.
Trump's
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday called the summit
"performative" and accused China and India of being "bad
actors" by fueling Russia's three-and-a-half-year war with Ukraine.
At a time when Trump is touting his peacemaking credentials,
any new concentration of military power in the East that includes Russia will
ring alarm bells for the West.
"Trilateral military exercises between Russia, China
and North Korea seem nearly inevitable," wrote Youngjun Kim, an analyst at
the US-based National Bureau of Asian Research, in March, citing how the
conflict in Ukraine has pushed Moscow and Pyongyang closer together.
"Until a few years ago, China and Russia were important
partners in imposing international sanctions on North Korea for its nuclear and
missile tests... (they) are now potential military partners of the Democratic
People's Republic of Korea during a crisis on the Korean peninsula," he
added, using the diplomatically isolated country's official name.
Kim is
an important stakeholder in the conflict in Ukraine: the North Korean leader
has supplied over 15,000 troops to support Putin's war.
In 2024, he also hosted the Russian leader in Pyongyang -
the first summit of its kind in 24 years - in a move widely interpreted as a
snub to Xi and an attempt to ease his pariah status by reducing North Korea's
dependence on China.
About
600 North Korean soldiers have died fighting for Russia in the Kursk region,
according to South Korea's intelligence agency, which believes Pyongyang is
planning another deployment.
Putin also told the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit
in Tianjin that a "fair balance in the security sphere" must be
restored, shorthand for Russia's criticism of the eastward expansion of NATO
and European Security.
