TIANJIN: Presidents Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin jointly criticised Western nations during a major regional summit in northern China on Monday.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation gathering brought together leaders from ten member states including India, Pakistan, Iran, and several Central Asian nations.
Xi addressed the assembled leaders by highlighting increasing global instability and condemning what he termed “bullying behaviour” from certain countries.
“The security and development tasks facing member states have become even more challenging,“ the Chinese leader stated in his Tianjin address.
Putin used his platform to defend Russia’s military actions in Ukraine while blaming Western powers for initiating the conflict through their support of Ukraine.
“This crisis wasn’t triggered by Russia’s attack on Ukraine, but was a result of a coup in Ukraine, which was supported and provoked by the West,“ the Russian president asserted.
The SCO positions itself as a non-Western collaborative model seeking to provide an alternative to traditional international alliances.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended his first China visit since 2018 and expressed commitment to advancing bilateral ties with Beijing.
Modi told Xi that India remained dedicated to developing relations “on the basis of mutual trust, dignity and sensitivity” despite ongoing regional competition.
The summit represents the bloc’s largest meeting since its 2001 founding and includes numerous observer nations and dialogue partners.
Both Xi and Putin held multiple bilateral meetings with other leaders on the summit’s sidelines, including discussions with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
The gathering precedes a major military parade in Beijing commemorating eighty years since the conclusion of World War Two.
Numerous leaders from the summit are expected to attend Wednesday’s parade, including North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Official promotional materials throughout Tianjin featured SCO slogans emphasizing mutual benefit and equality in both Chinese and Russian languages. – AFP
