Russia and China

Russia’s President said he used the summit to tell fellow world leaders what really happened in Georgia and that the West reported falsely on the topic. He said leaders from the six nation’s meeting should agree that Georgia should be held responsible as they started the conflict. Medvedev said a cooperated signal would send a message. The group did put out a statement, but it wasn’t exactly what Medvedev wanted. The statement voiced support for Russia’s role in assisting with peace in the region, but it also calls for dialogue and respect for territorial integrity. This analyst says the statement is clearly a setback for Moscow. He says Medvedev’s statement was just political spin, which this analyst finds unsurprising. He says it’s unlikely that China would’ve stood right beside Russia on this issue, because China is worried about separatism and violation of internationally recognized borders. China has its own separatist issues, like Tibet and Taiwan. Medvedev also didn’t get much support from the leaders of the central Asian countries he met with today, which the analyst says is also not surprising, because the recent movements make them nervous because of their own minority and separatist groups. The leaders in Tajikistan also didn’t condemn Russia, meaning these leaders aren’t exactly going to side with the U.S. and the West either.