Russia: China will remain engine of world economy, says Putin

Discussing the recent slump in China's stock markets, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that, despite the downturn, China "will remain the engine of the world economy" during his speech in Ufa, Friday. Speaking at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, the Russian leader said that the Chinese government were "quite calm" about the momentary slump in the markets, and that this was to be appreciated. When asked if the expansion of the SCO, which is allowing new members to join, would make it harder to keep the organisation unified in its decisions, President Putin admitted that unity would be harder to achieve with more members. However, he highlighted the point that after very difficult dialogue and the process of finding a compromise, the decisions made by the group would be powerful and guarantee stability. The sets to include Pakistan and India in the security group this month is the first time in over 15 years that the SCO has decided to extend the composition of its members.