>> ray nagin president tells al jazeera the u.s. sanctions must be lifted to reach a nuclear deal. there should be guarantees to achieve a lasting agreement. >> removal of sanctions should be accompanied. there are some baseless accusations when it comes to safeguard issues.

like the resolution proposed, the same thing will happen and based on the influence, they will create problems again. so we should finalize the safeguard issues. if we have guarantees and we have removal of sanctions, and if there is a less than solution -- lasting issue, it is possible to reach agreement. >> president zelenskyy says a mass grave has been found in the kharkiv region. local police officials said 440 bodies have been located across the region. the world food program says its facilities have been looted and offices set on fire in haiti. violent protests have swept across the country after the

government said it was hiking the price of fuel. u.s. president joe biden has hosted a forum at the white house. the event promoted a united front against recent domestic hate crimes. he announced new sanctions against tech openings like youtube and twitter for promoting violence under platforms. mourners gathered in the occupied west bank for the funeral of a palestinian teenager. the 17-year-old was killed when violence broke out during an israeli army raid. russia is sending a fact-finding team to armenia. those are your headlines. coming up next, inside story.

>> prussia -- pressure from the west which is russia and china closer together. what message are these presidents trying to send? this is inside story. imran: hello, welcome to the program. i am imran khan. the chinese president is making his first foreign trip since the

pandemic started. xi jinping's first stop was kazakhstan, where he launched his signature belt and road global infrastructure initiative in 2013. they signed a statement to lincoln mutual support. he flew to uzbekistan. he met with president vladimir putin and for the first time since russia invaded ukraine, both countries are seeking support. reporter: the leaders of the easter gathering in uzbekistan. several meetings are taking place here but perhaps the most important one is the one between vladimir putin and chinese

president xi jinping. china says the war in ukraine was provoked by nato. but it does not say the war in ukraine as well justified. this is something russia definitely wants to hear. russia -- china is asking for support from russia regarding taiwan. russia wants to sell more oil and gas to china. it wants to find out more resources for revenues to protect this economy from a collapse. china being the number one client for russian energy, i would also wants to have more alternatives. the chinese leader was in uzbekistan ahead of the shanghai

cooperation organisation meeting to see about increasing the gas import. one of the reasons is that china does not want its relations with russia to come at the expense of its relations with the west. imran: china has avoided openly supporting russia's invasion of ukraine, but in the past week, president xi made the statement. reporter: china expresses its understanding and full support for russia. on the ukraine issue, the u.s. and nato are expanding directly on russia's doorstep, threatening russia's national

security and the lives of russian citizens. given the circumstances, russia has taken necessary measures. china understands and we are coordinating on various aspects. i believe russia was cornered. in this case, to protect the country's core interests, russian gave a resolute response. reporter: in february, russia and china declared a no limits partnership. in march, u.s. officials reported moscow had requested beijing's military systems in conflict. they punished russia by removing it from the swift. china has reportedly offered assistance with its own system. in june, president xi hosted a

summit. in 2015 they launched. imran: let's bring our guests. einar tangen, senior fellow at taihe institute. dmitry babich, political analyst at inosmi internet project. theresa fallon, director of the centre for russia europe asia studies. welcome to the program. is this a hard power play by china? is china going to start using its muscle to formulate this new partnership with russia? >> i do not think it is necessarily a new partnership with russia. this is the sco. what china is trying to do is

making sure they are spreading their business around in terms of gas and they made a very pointed statement where they said territorial integrity is very important. the reason this is apropos to mention is that there have been rumblings of -- from hawkish conservative people in russia saying they were in a supportive enough of russia's actions in ukraine. and that there are lands that should rightfully be in russia's hands. the fact that xi once there is good indication that china's claim this carefully. they do not want to make enemies. what they want is a new regional order. that allows them to have dialogue instead of this kind of dissatisfied and warlike atmosphere. imran: but by bringing in brush

at this point in order to have that regional order, russia right now is under a tremendous amount of pressure. if china backs russia it exposes itself. >> there are these different narratives up there that somehow if you deal with russia you are equivalent of a baby killer and you are in favor of war. that is not the case and the global south has made it clear. it is not just china. it is india and countries in south america. in africa, we all witnessed the speech of the foreign minister of south africa where she dress down lincoln where she sat in fright of hurt -- a blinken while he sat in front of her. this issue about ukraine and

russia is a very simple from china's point of view. they see this as the americans provoking the situation in which there was a response. there was do not agree with the idea that nations should be taking matters like this in their own hands but they understand there are security concerns. in terms of china, they have the same kind of concerns with taiwan. they seat the same type of action by the u.s. towards taiwan. the upgrading of relations, trying to make up was i country. trying to make it day nato partner. selling billions of dollars worth of arms. this is provocative by china's standards. we'll see russia and china being pushed together by what they see as you less aggression. imran: clearly, moscow will welcome any kind of support for russia in this particular time.

but isn't the cost of this slightly too high? dmitry: there are no such fears in russia because compared to what we have from the european union from the united states, being a junior partner to china is not such a terrible perspective. i agree with the previous speaker from beijing that basically russia and china both feel threatened by the modern west, by its ideology which views any country that don't fit their ultraliberal narrative as enemies.

if you compare shanghai cooperation organisation to nato and the european union, nato and the european union busters have summed it more belligerent. sco usually begins with the statement that says the organization is not aimed toward any country. nato is the opposite. this is the kind of rhetoric that makes them very angry in russia and china. in that case, president xi and president putin they have support. as for your previous question

when you said is it a good time to bring russia on, shanghai cooperation organisation is an organization of equals. you cannot exclude anyone. if a country is a member, you do not have to get a special invitation. what makes us special is the inclusion of a brown -- i ran --airan. theresa: it seems to me this is now china's world and we just live in it. is that true? ethnic chinese like to say, it is a win-win situation with russia. because if russia loses in ukraine, china gets the benefit.

if they win, they have at least been rhetorically supporting them. i think it is difficult for many analysts to accept that russia and china are so closely having a strategic convergence and i think this makes them uncomfortable. this is also true in central asia. that china will not allow russia -- and the impingement unconscious than sovereignty. -- kazakhstan sovereignty. these countries have been balancing between russia and

china for many decades. and so i think that xi all politics is domestics right now. she wants to appear strong and powerful. this is the worst time for putin with ukraine pushback on russia. the optics are awful for putin. so i think this is a smart move for president xi. this is his first trip outside of china since covid. he had a meeting in ukraine and now the sco. the sco talks about cooperation, but there was a lot of fragmentation. a lot of internal problems. we see strains between india and china, india and pakistan.

they talk about cooperation, but there was a lot going on. theresa: let's get back to beijing. there was a lot of moving parts come about what are the key things about china's role when it comes to other countries. china has long been a good friend to pakistan. it has not said you need to be a democracy. it simply dealt with whatever military or government was in power. is that something that china is going to lean into. will it keep dealing with the people in power? einar: i object to the form of your question. the pakistanis are not -- it is

about a sovereign nation. let's look at the difference between the u.s. and china when it calls the summit. with the sco, it is about internal matters. about getting rid of terrorism. trying to make sure there was a moderate thing. there was a lot of contentious relations, but they did not exclude anybody. let's go to the summit of the americas where biden invited only those countries he thought he wanted to talk to and excluded a bunch of others. that had immediate backlash. the world is as it is. you can have dialogue or you can create walls or try to contain countries, change their governments and things like this. this is standard practice for the u.s.. does the world want to be u.s.

to be the police man of it? shouldn't it lead by example as opposed to hypocrisy? theresa: if the u.s. roll over? -- imran: is the u.s. role done? dmitry: as a young journalist, a lot of people in the former soviet union, we were not against the united states as a benign police man because the image of the americans and the british was very positive. what we do not view positively is the new ideology which is entrenched in the united states

and a european union over the last few dozens of years which led to bad politics. central asian countries are seeing with terror what is going on in ukraine. we have to look at this situation in perspective. the countries in central asia may not be happy with russia's actions in ukraine, but they

respect their political systems by not trying to lecture them on how they should build their democracies. in the west right now, they keep talking about autocracies versus democracies. read any textbook and you will find out there is something worse than autocracy and that if totalitarianism. that is exactly what we have now in the united states and in big european union about the situation in ukraine. only one of you was allowed. -- only one view is allowed.

imran: i want to bring in theresa. you had a bemused look on your face. theresa: i want to pick up on one earlier point. the fact that sweden and finland want to join nato, president putin said there was no problem with them joining. so this narrative that this war in ukraine was because of nato expansion has been proven false even by president putin himself. second, the protest happened after the leader refused to sign the agreement with the european union because the public wanted closer economic cooperation within but you. -- european union. i would add there is a division of labor in central asia.

china's economy is slowing down. russia is going to be in difficult straits for the next decades. they have had a huge bring drink because of the war on ukraine. the outcome it remains to be seen what happens in central asia. putin has very strong feelings, especially about kazakhstan, because it shares a very long border with them. they're economy is growing and they have large energy exports. imran: do you want to react? einar: let's be realistic. what do you say about afghanistan and iraq? all between one neural -- turmoil that has been created by the united states and then

walking away from it. the middle east is broken because of the u.s.. there are similar things that happened in africa and central america. tell me again how it is that china and russia are the ones destabilizing the world. how is it that the united states has been helping in on the side of the angels and everyone else is on the side of evil? imran: you are hearing two different perspectives there. at some point, russia is going to have to decide who it wants to throw its lot in. china is not completely back russia when it comes to the war in ukraine. they are afraid of sanctions as well.

dmitry: of course the war in ukraine is a tragedy, but the western view is a simplistic view of that tragedy. he postponed the signing and the public wanted it. the president had the full right to postpone the signing of that agreement. the violent action against him was absolutely illegal. you can imagine what would happen in the united states to somebody who killed 30 policeman trying to make the president signed some kind of a document. this action was fully supported by the united states and the european union. it was a disgrace. this was the first step to the civil war we are seeing now in ukraine. because these are people

speaking the same language in most of the cases. i support our previous speaker from beijing. the united states and a big european union have no right to lecture russia and china after everything they have done in syria. imran: i want you to answer this question. what can the u.s. do when this is happening? theresa: i think russia and china will eventually pull apart . i think the u.s. should sit back and watch the show. this idea of a rules-based order it sounds like russia and china have such great plans.

an unprovoked war in ukraine. this is another issue that the chinese president has to downplay. this is a point of friction. it is a difficult diplomatic balancing act that president xi jinping has to do. i would say that we are the same defecation world the border between west and asian-pacific. india has kind of this independent country so i think

the rules-based order versus this kind of growing group of access will be interesting to watch. that is why i think this sco is being watched more than any other sco meeting in my memory. we will see how they played this out. imran: i want to thank all of our guests. a very spirited debate. i want to thank you as well. you can see the program any time by visiting our website. for further discussion, visit our facebook page. you can also join the conversation on twitter. goodbye for now.

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