While President Trump insults his erstwhile foreign partners in a colorful twitter tirade ahead of a G-7 (or rather, G-6+1) summit in Quebec, exposing the very real fragmentation of longtime western partnerships as the US cracks down on unfair foreign trade practices, a productive meeting between China’s “Emperor for Life” Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin has been completely overshadowed, as Bloombergpoints out.
The two leaders held their first meeting this year on Thursday ahead of the June 9 Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting – an eight-member group led by China and Russia – which will be held in the port city of Qingdao.
But the west is ignoring the burgeoning partnership between the two countries – both permanent members of the UN Security Council – at its own peril. Because Putin and Xi are playing an ever-expanding role in resolving global disputes like, for example, the dispute between the US and North Korea.
