On September 15, Russian president Vladimir Putin and Chinese president Xi Jinping convened a joint strategy meeting in Samarkand, Uzbekistan at the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which they formed back in July 2001. The Islamic Republic of Iran was accepted at this meeting as a full member of the alliance, which already includes India, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, while Belarus may soon follow. The alliance boasts over 42 percent of the world’s population (as compared to only 12 percent for NATO) and 30 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) by purchasing power parity. Putin previously stated the meeting would have special significance because they will discuss how Russia and China can better support each other with regard to Russia’s continuing war in Ukraine and China’s plan to reunify with Taiwan by force, if necessary, within the next year or two.
This historic summit is taking place shortly after Ukrainian forces took advantage of its seldom discussed two or three-to-one quantitative advantage in troops to recapture more than 2,300 square miles of territory in their counteroffensive which has driven Russian forces from most of Ukraine’s Kharkiv oblast. This offensive, along with Ukraine’s failed Kherson offensive which has cost the lives of up to 3,000 Ukrainian soldiers thus far, was reportedly planned and coordinated with U.S. and NATO military leaders. This Ukrainian military success will almost certainly result in some form of Russian military escalation in the coming weeks.
Senior U.S. and NATO officials have warned Russia may resort to the use of tactical nuclear weapons following their recent battlefield setbacks in Ukraine. In an interview with Business Insider, Brigadier General Kevin Ryan (USA Ret.), a former defense attaché to Russia and senior fellow at Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, echoed a point that I made in a previous article. He suggested that the most likely scenario for Putin to use nuclear weapons against Ukraine would be if Putin were to follow through on his stated plans to annex some or all of the Ukrainian territories Russia has conquered, and Ukraine was successful in taking a substantial part of them back. Ukraine’s commander in chief, General Valery Zaluzhny confirmed this possibility stating:
