Xi, Putin, Kim meeting direct challenge to international system: EU

BRUSSELS: The presence of the leaders of Russia and North Korea alongside Chinese President Xi Jinping at a massive parade in Beijing Wednesday was part of efforts to build an anti-Western “new world order”, the EU’s foreign policy chief said.

“Looking at President Xi standing alongside the leaders of Russia, Iran, North Korea in Beijing today, these aren’t just anti-Western optics, this is a direct challenge to the international system built on rules,” Kaja Kallas told journalists.

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CONPIRING AGAINST THE US

Earlier, US President Donald Trump accused the leaders of China, North Korea and Russia late Tuesday of conspiring against the United States as they gathered in Beijing for a massive military parade.

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As North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russia’s Vladimir Putin flanked Xi Jinping at the parade marking 80 years since World War II ended, Trump wrote a testy Truth Social post addressing Xi: “give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong Un, as you conspire against The United States of America.”

FLEX GEOPOLITICAL POWER

Kallas added, “It’s not just symbolic. Russia’s war in Ukraine is being sustained by Chinese support. These are realities that Europe needs to confront now.”

Putin and Kim flanked Xi at the event to mark the end of World War II, capping a week of diplomatic grandstanding by the Chinese president and his allies against the West.

In unprecedented scenes, Xi shook both their hands and chatted with the pair as they walked down a red carpet by Tiananmen Square, with Putin to Xi’s right and Kim to his left.

“We are experiencing deliberate attempts to change the international order,” Kallas said, in a subsequent speech.

“China and Russia also speak of leading changes together not seen in a hundred years and the revision of the global security order.”

Kallas said that Europe needs to better flex its “geopolitical power” in the face of the global upheaval.

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“A new global order is in the making,” Kallas said.

“It will not be shaped without Europe, but it will be shaped by what Europe is willing to do, whether we are willing to recognise the need for Europe to play a geopolitical role.”