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Vladimir Putin has confirmed he’ll attend the opening of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, an occasion that Boris Johnson and different western leaders have boycotted in protest at human rights abuses in China.
Putin made the pledge throughout a video name with the Chinese language chief, Xi Jinping, as he stated {that a} “new mannequin of cooperation has been fashioned between our nations, primarily based on different issues of ideas akin to non-interference in [each other’s] inner affairs”.
Russia and China are dealing with rising strain from the US and western nations as regional conflicts and human rights abuses have led to rising tensions.
The US, UK and Australia have stated high-level officers is not going to be attending the winter Video games owing largely to China’s abuses of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang and crackdown on the Hong Kong pro-democracy motion.
Putin is in search of assist in his rising battle with the west over his navy buildup close to Ukraine. His promise to attend the Olympics would mark a uncommon journey abroad for the Covid-shy Russian president. He has travelled overseas solely twice because the outbreak of the pandemic – to Geneva in June to satisfy Joe Biden, and to New Delhi to satisfy the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi. Xi has not publicly left China since 2019.
“As agreed, we’ll maintain talks after which take part within the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympic Video games,” Putin advised Xi throughout the assembly. Whereas the 2 leaders are usually not allies and compete with each other for affect, they’ve discovered a typical trigger in resisting strain over how they govern their nations.
The pledge got here as a senior US official arrived in Moscow for talks with Russian diplomats. The US assistant secretary of state, Karen Donfried, had earlier travelled to Kyiv, the place she advised officers that by no means would Washington press Ukraine into making concessions to Russia.
In Moscow she met the Russian deputy overseas minister, Sergei Ryabkov. The assembly lasted an hour, throughout which Ryabkov stated he would formally suggest the “safety ensures” that Russia has sought from the US and Nato nations. Specifically, Moscow has demanded ensures that Ukraine is not going to be part of Nato and won’t function a base for the navy alliance’s infrastructure.
“There was a substantive dialogue of safety ensures in mild of the continuing makes an attempt of the US and Nato at altering the military-political scenario in Europe of their favour,” the Russian overseas ministry stated in a quick assertion that gave no different particulars concerning the assembly.
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