Putin set to meet Xi, Erdogan at security summit in Kazakhstan

Russian President Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping are due to meet at a summit of a Eurasian security and defense club seen by Moscow and Beijing as an instrument to counter the influence of the United States and its allies.

Putin and the Chinese president have expanded the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a club founded in 2001 with Russia, China and Central Asian powers, to include India, Iran and Pakistan as a counterweight to the West.

Putin will hold a series of bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the July 3-4 SCO summit in the Kazakh capital, Astana, the Kremlin says.

He is due to meet Xi, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and the leaders of Azerbaijan, Mongolia and Pakistan before an informal dinner hosted by Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.

India says Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is expected in Moscow later this month, will not attend. He is sending Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar instead.