torsdag 23. februar 2023
Ukraine war: China's claim to neutrality fades with Moscow visit
Vladimir Putin loves a really long table. Images of his meetings are famous,
with the Russian leader at one end and the person he is speaking to so far away that you wonder if it is hard for them to hear one another. It was not like thatwhen he met China's top foreign policy official, Wang Yi. There they were,sitting within handshake distance, with an oval-shaped table in the middle.
Itcould be that the proximity was achieved by seating placement at a previously used table, with the Chinese delegation directly across the middle rather than at the long ends but the effect was the same. When the footage was released, it appeared to be a deliberately symbolic move to show that he felt safe enough to be that close to the representative of such an important friend. Of course, it has not always been that way.
