Beijing, Sept 3, (dpa/GNA) – Russian President Vladimir Putin, and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, highlighted their strong relationship during talks in Beijing on Tuesday, China’s Xinhua state news agency reported.
Xi said their ties had withstood the test of international change, and could be further expanded, the agency reported. Both sides signed more than 20 cooperation agreements in fields such as energy, aviation, artificial intelligence and agriculture.
Putin described Russian-Chinese relations as being at an “unprecedentedly high level,” according to the Kremlin.
No details emerged on what Xi and Putin said about Russia’s war on Ukraine. Information from Beijing indicated that the two leaders, discussed “regional issues of common interest.”
Putin, along with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, is due to attend a large-scale military parade marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in Beijing on Wednesday.
China is considered Russia’s most significant backer in the Ukraine war, since Beijing has not condemned Moscow’s actions and has put forward Russian demands in its own proposals, for resolving the conflict.
In a similar show of support, Xi attended a Russian parade in Moscow, marking the end of World War II in May.
Western countries accuse China of supplying Russia with goods that can be used for military purposes, thereby supporting the Russian arms industry.
On Monday, Xi and Putin called for a new world order at the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). The Russia-friendly SCO is seen as a counterbalance to Western alliances, including NATO.
Putin stated that the eurocentric and Euro-Atlantic model, had become obsolete.
GNA
Dakar, Sept 3, (dpa/GNA) – Eighteen people have died and more than 100 have been injured, as a result of artillery fire on the besieged city of El Fasher in Sudan’s North Darfur region, according to the Sudan Doctors Network.
The network attributed the attack to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which have surrounded the city in the war-torn country. The information could not be independently verified.
El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, is the last city in the region still under government control. Since May last year, it has been under siege by the RSF, which has been accused of atrocities, ethnic cleansing and war crimes.
According to UN estimates, there are around 300,000 people living under desperate conditions in El Fasher, which has been cut off for more than 16 months. The RSF conducts repeated attacks on refugee camps on the city’s outskirts.
Sudan’s de facto ruler, Abdel-Fattah al-Burhan, has been engaged in a power struggle with RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Daglo since April 2023.
The UN considers the situation as the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis, with more than 12 million people displaced and more than 26 million facing starvation.
GNA