Xi and Putin build achievable future

It is fascinating to contrast the serious, systematic and methodical deepening of ties between Moscow and Beijing achieved this past week between President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg with the sentimental and infantile posturing of Western leaders at their latest D-Day anniversary commemoration in Normandy, France.

The Western leaders desperately tried to ignore and paper over the ongoing disintegration of the European Union, with voters rejecting the arrogance of unrestrained free trade, open borders and liberal internationalism in the United Kingdom, Italy, Hungary and France while the province of Catalonia threatens to secede from Spain.

By contrast, Xi and Putin looked not to a romantic fantasy of the far past, but to building a solid, achievable future. They strengthened their already profound strategic friendship and cooperation - ludicrously ignored by the Western media and bizarrely denied even by most US and UK strategic "experts" who should know better.