Xi Jinping Declined To Meet With Putin

• 10.09.2026, 16:56

A new, troubling signal has come from Beijing for the Kremlin.

Chinese President Xi Jinping will not hold a separate bilateral meeting with Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in New Delhi, according to The Moscow Times. This was announced by Russian Presidential Aide Yuri Ushakov. “No bilateral meeting [between Putin and Xi Jinping] is planned at the BRICS summit in New Delhi,” Ushakov said (as quoted by TASS). However, he suggested that Putin and Xi Jinping might “chat on the sidelines.” “They will have a so-called ‘standing meeting,’” explained the Russian presidential aide.

The last meeting between Putin and Xi Jinping took place on August 31 in Bishkek at a meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the SCO member states. However, those talks failed to yield progress on the “Power of Siberia 2” project, which calls for the supply of up to 50 billion cubic meters of gas per year to China. As the South China Morning Post reported, citing sources familiar with the situation, the parties were unable to agree on a price. China expects to pay about $50 per thousand cubic meters—the same as Russian consumers—or $120–130, which is the price for Russian industrial consumers.

Russia, however, proposes using the price of gas under the “Power of Siberia-1” pipeline as a benchmark—about $250–260 per thousand cubic meters. This is about 40% lower than Gazprom’s prices for buyers in distant foreign markets, which are around $420.