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Xi meets with multiple foreign dignitaries

Global Times

By Xu Keyue Published: Aug 31, 2025 10:32 PM

Chinese President Xi Jinping has met with multiple foreign leaders and heads of international organizations over the past weekend in North China's Tianjin, the host city of the 2025 Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit, marking a vibrant period in China's diplomatic engagements.

Among leaders from more than 20 countries and heads of 10 international organizations for the SCO Summit 2025, Xi has met with Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Nepali Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, Myanmar's acting president Min Aung Hlaing, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet, Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres over the weekend, according to Xinhua News Agency.

The SCO Summit marks China's embrace of a bustling season of head-of-state diplomacy. This series of events fully demonstrates the importance of multilateral platform such as SCO, and China's increasingly prominent role in a multipolar world, Wang Huiyao, founder and president of think tank the Center for China and Globalization (CCG), told the Global Times on Sunday.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu said on Friday at a press conference that head-of-state diplomacy is the highest form of China's diplomacy and plays a decisive role in China's major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), President Xi has personally planned and conducted head-of-state diplomacy and many fruitful results were achieved, by making 55 overseas visits to 72 countries across five continents and hosted state visits by foreign heads of state for more than 230 times, according to Xinhua.

Bilateral engagement

In the meeting with Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, Xi called for intensified efforts to implement the consensus reached by the two sides during his state visit to Vietnam in April, to deliver more substantive outcomes in their comprehensive strategic cooperation.

China and Vietnam should have firm confidence in their paths and systems, and strengthen solidarity and coordination, Xi noted.

Pham Minh Chinh said that Vietnam and China share common strategic interests and are companions on the path of socialism, and that developing relations with China is a strategic choice and a top priority of Vietnam's foreign policy.

Xi said when meeting Turkish President Erdogan that China and Turkey are both emerging major countries with a spirit of independence, adding that the high-level development of bilateral relations serves the fundamental interests of both countries as well as the common interests of the Global South.

Xi called on both countries to grasp the global trend of peace, development, and win-win cooperation, and work together to build a global governance system that is more just and equitable.

The Turkish side is willing to enhance cooperation with China within the framework of the SCO to contribute to the development and prosperity of the region and the world, Erdogan said, speaking highly of China's just stance on the Middle East issue.

Indian Prime Minister Modi arrived in Tianjin on Saturday for his first visit to China since 2018, the Economic Times reported.

During meeting with Modi on Sunday, Xi told Modi that China and India are cooperation partners, not rivals, and that the two countries are each other's development opportunities rather than threats, Xinhua reported.

As long as the two countries stick to this overarching direction, China-India relations can sustain steady and long-term growth, Xi said.

Xi said China and India should become neighbors on good terms and partners helping each other succeed. A "cooperative pas de deux of the dragon and the elephant" should be the right choice for the two countries, he said.

The two Asian neighbors should work together to ensure peace and tranquility in their border regions, and should not let the border issue define the overall China-India relations, Xi said, according to Xinhua.

Noting that India and China are partners, not rivals, and the consensus between the two countries far outweighs their disagreement, Modi said India is ready to view and develop bilateral ties from a long-term perspective.

Xi told Belarusian President Lukashenko that China is willing to work with Belarus to practice true multilateralism and jointly contribute to world peace, development and win-win cooperation as humanity once again comes to a crossroads.

Lukashenko praised China's just position on international and regional affairs, saying that China has made major contributions to peace and stability on the Eurasian continent and in the world.

Experts pointed out that China's diplomacy has always showed its capacity to facilitate communication and dialogue between countries, as well as inclusiveness and openness.

Even if differences exist among countries, cooperation can be explored to mitigate mutual distrust, thereby facilitating bilateral and even multilateral cooperation. This approach, in turn, helps bridge divides and enhance mutual trust, thus playing an expanded role in promoting peace, driving development, and fostering integration, they said.

On Saturday, Xi met with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in Tianjin, stating that China is willing to deepen cooperation with the UN, support the UN in playing a central role in international affairs, and jointly shoulder the responsibility of safeguarding world peace and promoting development and prosperity. Xi said that China will always be a trustworthy partner of UN, Xinhua reported.

Noting that this year marks the 80th anniversary of the victory in the World Anti-Fascist War and the 80th founding anniversary of the UN, Xi said history has revealed that multilateralism, solidarity and cooperation are the right answer to global challenges.

Hailing China as a cornerstone in defending multilateralism, Guterres said the UN is willing to strengthen cooperation with China to promote world multipolarization, enhance the representation of developing countries, and enable the UN to play a greater role in international affairs.

China's major-country diplomacy has consistently upheld and practiced true multilateralism, continuously deepened communication and cooperation with strategic partners, and more effectively safeguarded the development rights and interests of the "Global South," Qian Feng, director of the research department at the National Strategy Institute at Tsinghua University, told the Global Times.