Xi Jinping told Trump Putin might regret Ukraine invasion, FT reports

Chinese President Xi Jinping told US President Donald Trump last week that Russian President Vladimir Putin might eventually regret invading Ukraine, according to a report by the Financial Times.

According to people familiar with the US assessment of the summit held in Beijing, Xi’s remarks came during extended discussions on the war in Ukraine, which also included a proposal from Trump that the US, China, and Russia cooperate against the International Criminal Court.

Xi’s comments on Putin’s decision to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 appeared more candid than his previous positions, with one source familiar with his meetings with former US President Joe Biden saying Xi had not previously offered a direct assessment of Putin or the war.

This comes as Putin prepares to arrive in China on Tuesday for a summit with Xi, just four days after the Chinese president hosted Trump.

Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, three weeks after visiting China and declaring a “partnership without limits” with Xi. His current visit comes 25 years after former Chinese President Jiang Zemin signed the Sino-Russian Treaty of Friendship with Putin.

The Chinese embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment, while the White House also declined to comment. The Trump administration also released a memo about the Beijing summit, but it did not include any reference to discussions related to Putin or the war in Ukraine.

During the summit, Trump also proposed that the US, China, and Russia cooperate in confronting the International Criminal Court, noting that their interests were aligned, according to those familiar with the talks.

The Trump administration had previously expressed strong opposition to the International Criminal Court, accusing it of politicizing issues, abusing power, and exceeding US sovereignty.

Xi’s comments on Putin came as the Russian war on Ukraine has reached a stalemate after four years, especially with the increasing effectiveness of drone strikes carried out by Kyiv against Russian forces and targets.

The Biden administration has repeatedly accused China of supplying Russia with dual-use materials that help it continue its war on Ukraine, while the Trump administration raised similar concerns but at a slower pace.

US Democratic Representative Brendan Boyle said that the Ukrainians “have reinvented the methods of warfare in the same way that World War I changed the nature of wars in the 21st century,” adding that drone warfare has become the norm today and is reshaping the concept of combat.

Ukraine carried out drone strikes on Sunday targeting sites near Moscow, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said were “fully justified,” following a record Russian air attack on Kyiv last week.

The strikes came after a three-day ceasefire that Trump had mediated, allowing Putin to organize the annual “Victory Day” parade without the risk of Ukrainian drone attacks.

Experts have warned that the world has become less resilient to infectious disease outbreaks, as health authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda race against time to contain the spread of the Ebola virus.

According to a report published by The Guardian, the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board, in a report published yesterday, Monday, said that “outbreaks of infectious diseases are not only becoming more frequent but also more destructive,” warning that pandemic risks are accelerating faster than the investments allocated to prepare for them, and that “the world has not actually become safer yet.”

The report added that the likelihood of disease outbreaks is increasing due to the climate crisis and armed conflicts, while collective efforts are undermined by geopolitical divisions and commercial interests.

The Global Preparedness Monitoring Board is a group of experts established in 2018 by the World Bank and the World Health Organization following the first large-scale Ebola outbreak in West Africa, and shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The report comes amid growing global attention to the outbreak of the Hantavirus on a cruise ship, and a day after a global health emergency was declared following the deaths of at least 87 people from Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“Global Health”: Crises are worsening globally

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, during the opening of the UN World Health Assembly in Geneva, that the two outbreaks “are just the latest crises in our troubled world.”

WHO Representative in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Anne Ansia, told Reuters that the organization had exhausted its stock of protective equipment in the capital, Kinshasa, during the Ebola outbreak response, and that it is preparing a cargo plane to bring additional supplies from a warehouse in Kenya.

The International Rescue Committee and Doctors Without Borders also announced that they had sent teams to participate in confronting the outbreak.

The World Health Organization is scheduled to host an urgent scientific meeting on Friday, bringing together top experts to pool available information on the virus and set priorities for research and development of vaccines, tests, and drugs.

In Geneva, Director of the Center for Global Health Policy and Politics at Georgetown University, Professor Matthew Kavanagh, said that reduced aid may have contributed to the world “trying to catch up with a very dangerous disease.”

He added: “Because early tests looked for the wrong strain of Ebola, we got false negative results and lost weeks of response time. By the time the alarm was raised, the virus had already spread through major transportation routes and across borders.”

He continued: “This crisis did not happen out of nowhere. When you pull billions of dollars from the World Health Organization and dismantle USAID programs on the front lines, you destroy the surveillance system that is supposed to detect these viruses early. We are now witnessing the direct and fatal consequences of treating global health security as a dispensable expense.”

“Unprecedented progress”

The Global Preparedness Monitoring Board report found that new technologies, including modern vaccine platforms such as messenger RNA (mRNA), have seen “unprecedented progress,” with billions of dollars invested in pandemic preparedness and response.

However, the report noted that the world is “regressing” in measures such as ensuring equitable access to vaccines, tests, and treatments. During recent outbreaks of monkeypox, it took about two years for vaccines to reach affected African countries, which is even slower than the 17 months it took for COVID-19 vaccines.

The Board warned that disease outbreaks have weakened trust in governments, civil liberties, and democratic standards, which has been exacerbated by politicized responses and attacks on scientific institutions. It added that the effects continued even after the crises ended, making communities “less resilient to future emergencies.”

Co-chair of the Board and former Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović said: “The world does not lack solutions. But without trust and justice, these solutions will not reach the people who need them most.”

She said that “political leaders, the industrial sector, and civil society can still change the course of global readiness if they translate their commitments into tangible and measurable progress before the next crisis occurs.”

Countries failed to meet the deadline for concluding a pandemic treaty before the World Health Assembly this week in Geneva, following disagreements over guarantees of access to medical tests, vaccines, and treatments in exchange for sharing information about any pathogens that emerge within their territories.

The Global Preparedness Monitoring Board called on political leaders to establish a permanent and independent mechanism for monitoring pandemic risks, and to finalize a pandemic treaty to ensure equitable access to vaccines, tests, and drugs, as well as to provide the necessary funding to enhance readiness and rapid response to disease outbreaks.

Co-chair of the Board, former Botswana Minister of Health Joy Phumaphi, said: “If the erosion of trust and cooperation continues, all countries will be more vulnerable when the next pandemic strikes.”