BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping gave visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin China’s first friendship medal on Friday, calling him his best friend, underscoring the…
BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping gave visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin China’s first friendship medal on Friday, calling him his best friend, underscoring the close ties between the two despite deep reservations many Western nations have of Putin.
Putin is in China for a weekend summit of the Chinese and Russian-led security bloc the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in the port city of Qingdao, but dropped by Beijing first for talks with Xi.
Meeting in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, Xi lauded their relationship.
« No matter what fluctuations there are in the international situation, China and Russia have always firmly taken the development of relations as a priority, » Xi told Putin at the start of their formal talks.
Xi then awarded Putin China’s first ever friendship medal, on a large gold coloured chain, an event carried live on state television.
Xi, speaking just before he put the medal on Putin, called him a « good and old friend of the Chinese people ».
