Qingdao SCO Summit: “Secret Meeting” between Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Kim Jong-un?
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) will hold its 18th annual summit meeting in Qingdao, Shandong Province on June 9-10, barely a few days before the (scheduled) Kim-Trump Summit in Singapore on June 12-14. The SCO meetings will be chaired by China’s President Xi-Jingping.
There are unconfirmed reports that Kim Jong-un will be invited and that a “secret meeting” between Kim Jong-un, Xi Jinping, and Vladimir Putin, is scheduled to take place in Qingdao on June 9, “on the margin”of the official SCO meeting. At the time of writing the holding of the Singapore Summit is still unconfirmed and could be cancelled by either side.
In all likelihood, the Korean crisis will be on the agenda of the SCO meeting which regroups representatives from SCO member states including China, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, India and Pakistan as well as observers from Iran, Afghanistan, Belarus and Mongolia.
Were Kim to attend the SCO venue, this would be his third meeting with China’s president Xi Jinping in 2018.
It should be mentioned that China was a signatory of the 1953 armistice agreement (U.S., DPRK, China’s Volunteer Army). Legally this 1953 agreement cannot be rescinded without China’s participation in the Korea-US peace process.
An unconfirmed report suggests that Kim Jong-un may also “make a guest appearance” at the SCO meetings:
The China Times reports that Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi made a statement about the upcoming SCO Summit, declaring that a “Declaration of Qingdao” is expected to be signed at the meeting, along with 10 other agreements on cooperation in fields of security, the economy, and culture. See Taiwan Times report,