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What the Kazan summit and Seoul's warning signalled
Summary
A look back at 24 October 2024, framed by two developments reported in the days before it: North Korean troop deployments and a Modi–Xi meeting.
What was the diplomatic backdrop on 24 October 2024? Two reports from the preceding days pointed in different directions, and both bore on Russia's war in Ukraine.
On 18 October, South Korea's National Intelligence Service said North Korea had started sending troops to fight alongside Russia in Ukraine. South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol called a security meeting and said the international community must respond with "all available means". That put foreign involvement in the war in a new category, with a third country's soldiers reported to be joining the fighting.
On 23 October, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the 16th BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia. It was the first bilateral meeting between the two leaders in five years, and it came after the 2020 border skirmishes between Indian and Chinese troops.
Taken together, the reports show Russia hosting a major summit as it drew on outside military support. For Kyiv, the reported North Korean deployment widened the scope of the conflict, while the Kazan meeting showed other regional powers engaging directly with each other on Russian soil.
