The Russian President, also 72, answered: “With the development of biotechnology, human organs can be continuously transplanted, and you people can live younger and younger, and even achieve immortality.”
Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un discussed living to 150 and potential immortality using biotechnology. Photo / Getty Images
Kim, a relative stripling at just 41, did not speak as the Russian and Chinese leaders discussed living forever, but smiled as he listened intently.
Putin is known to be interested in anti-ageing science and has ties to Mikhail Kovalchuk, a 78-year-old Russian official said to be “obsessed” with staying young.
Last year it was reported he ordered scientific officials to look into “3D bioprinting” to use lab-grown cells to print replacement organs.
Meanwhile, China’s extensive organ transplant programme has been controversial, not least because it uses executed prisoners’ organs to supply hospitals.
Putin confirmed the conversation with Xi when reporters asked later whether he thought people could live to 150 in the future.
He said: “Yes, yes, when we went to the parade, the chairman [Mr Xi] spoke about this.
“Well, yes, modern means of healing, medicine, even all kinds of surgery related to organ replacement allow humanity to hope that active life will continue differently than it does today.”
Putin claimed that the late Silvio Berlusconi, a friend of his and the former Italian prime minister, “actively developed this topic”.
Both Putin and Xi’s fathers lived to their late 80s.
‘Friendship without limits’
Xi, Putin and Kim reappeared on camera mounting a viewing platform for a military parade. It was China’s largest-ever military parade, marking 80 years since China’s victory over Japan.
The meeting was the first time that Kim, Xi and Putin had met together. They watched as robot dogs, nuclear and laser weapons and drones were paraded in a warning to the West.
It comes after Xi hosted a summit of non-Western leaders and sketched out plans for a new world order to challenge the dominance of the US-led West.
Putin, a pariah in the West since his invasion of Ukraine, enjoys a “friendship without limits” alliance with Xi.
At the start of the parade, Donald Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform: “May President Xi and the wonderful people of China have a great and lasting day of celebration.
“Please give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un, as you conspire against the United States of America.”
After the parade, Kim told Putin he would do “everything” he could to help Russia in Ukraine as the pair met for private talks in Beijing.
Putin said Kim’s soldiers had fought “courageously and heroically” alongside the Russians in their fight against “modern Nazism”, which the North Korean said was his “fraternal duty”.
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