By Mei Mei Chu and Laurie Chen

Item 1 of 3 Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with officials during a welcoming ceremony at an airport upon his arrival for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Tianjin, China August 31, 2025. Sputnik/Vladimir Smirnov/Pool via REUTERS

[1/3] Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with officials during a welcoming ceremony at an airport upon his arrival for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Tianjin, China August 31, 2025. Sputnik/Vladimir Smirnov/Pool via REUTERS Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab

TIANJIN, China, Aug 31 (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in the northern Chinese port city of Tianjin on Sunday, Chinese and Russian state media reported, for a regional security summit that China hopes can counter Western influence in global affairs.

For the rare four-day visit to Russia’s neighbour and largest trading partner, Putin arrived to a red carpet welcome, received on the tarmac by top-ranking city officials, a livestream of the event by Russia’s TASS showed.

Ties between China and Russia are at their “best in history”, having become the “most stable, mature and strategically significant among major countries”, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said in its report of the arrival.

President Xi Jinping will host about 20 world leaders in Tianjin, also including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at the two-day summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, the largest gathering since the group was established in 2001 among six Eurasian nations.

The security-focused bloc has expanded to 10 permanent members and 16 dialogue and observer countries in recent years. Its remit has enlarged from security and counter-terrorism to economic and military cooperation.

Xi is expected to use the summit to showcase what a post-American-led international order would look like, while providing a high-profile diplomatic boost for Russia, hit by sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine.

A day before his visit, Putin blasted Western sanctions in a written interview with China’s official Xinhua news agency, saying Moscow and Beijing jointly opposed “discriminatory” sanctions in global trade.

Russia’s economy is on the brink of recession, weighed by trade curbs and the cost of the war.

Leaders from Central Asia, the Middle East, South Asia and Southeast Asia will attend the summit in what China aims to portray as a powerful show of unity among the “Global South”, referring to developing and lower-income countries, mostly in the southern hemisphere.

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Laurie Chen is a China Correspondent at Reuters’ Beijing bureau, covering politics and general news. Before joining Reuters, she reported on China for six years at Agence France-Presse and the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong. She speaks fluent Mandarin.

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