The breaking down of multilateral cooperation mechanism may lead to a systemic crisis that will affect all economies without exception, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the 2018 St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) on Friday. 

The determining principles of world economy development, free trade and investment, stability and predictability, have been gradually replaced by restrictions and sanctions, leading to harder negotiation and less agreements, he said in a speech during a plenary session at SPIEF. Among the attendants of the forum are Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan, French President Emmanuel Macron, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Christine Lagarde.

The melting down of these principles will make the world fall back to the past – an era of self-sufficient economy and low efficiency, and waste the recourse and technology that could have been used to improve public well-being, Putin said. 

“Today, we do not need trade wars, or even temporary trade truce, but a full-fledged trading world,” he said. 

At the plenary session, Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan also called for global unity in resisting trade protectionism and safeguarding the stable international economic order, particularly the authority of the multilateral trading system.

In addition to the trade conflicts, the US-DPRK Summit, which hangs in the wind, also drew attention at the plenary session. 

Just one day before the session, US President Donald Trump announced the calling off of the talks with a surprising letter to Kim Jong Un, leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. 

Security on the Korean Peninsula matters to China’s core interests, so China expects the region to keep peaceful and stable, Wang said. 

The US-DPRK Summit is key to ensuring the security of the peninsula, Wang said, noting the sudden cancellation by US a day ago was “a little interlude” and the two sides still leave chances for each other. 

Around the same time as the plenary session, Trump said the planned summit will possibly still take place on June 12 as originally planned.