ASTANA, Kazakhstan — Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping hailed their Eurasian safety membership on Wednesday as a drive for world stability at a summit of the regional physique, which is seen by Moscow and Beijing as a software to counter Western affect.
Putin and the Chinese president have expanded the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a membership based in 2001 with Russia, China and Central Asian nations, to incorporate India, Iran and Pakistan as a counterweight to the West.
“The organization has firmly established itself as one of the key pillars of a fair, multipolar world order,” Putin stated, including that bilateral ties between Moscow and Beijing have been at their greatest in historical past.
“Our cooperation is not aimed against anyone, we are not creating any blocs or alliances, we are just acting in the interests of our peoples,” Putin stated.
In his opening remarks, Xi instructed Putin that China and Russia ought to “uphold the original aspiration of friendship for generations” in response to an “ever-changing international situation.”
Calling Putin an “old friend,” Xi alluded to the progress the 2 international locations had made in setting up “plans and arrangements for the next development of bilateral relations.”
The Kremlin stated Putin had held a sequence of bilateral conferences on the sidelines of the SCO summit, which is going down in Astana, capital of Kazakhstan, and ends on Thursday.
The SCO promotes frequent approaches to exterior safety threats resembling drug trafficking and additionally focuses on countering any home instability.
Ahead of his assembly with Xi, Putin met Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, and the presidents of Azerbaijan and Mongolia, Ilham Aliyev and Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh.
India stated Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is anticipated in Moscow later this month, wouldn’t attend the Astana gathering, sending Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar as an alternative.
China and Russia declared a “no limits” partnership in February 2022 when Putin visited Beijing, days earlier than he despatched tens of 1000’s of troops into Ukraine. Since then, Xi and Putin have deepened relations.
Xi and Putin imagine the U.S.-dominated post-Cold War period is crumbling. The U.S. casts China as its greatest competitor and Russia as its greatest nation-state menace. President Joe Biden says this century can be outlined by an existential contest between democracies and autocracies.
At final yr’s digital summit, the group criticized what it referred to as the unfavorable impression of “unilateral and unlimited expansion of global missile defense systems by certain countries or groups of countries,” with out straight referring to NATO growth or Western military assistance to Ukraine.
In a transfer that highlighted Beijing’s pragmatic economy-driven strategy, Xi presided over a ceremony on Wednesday together with his Kazakh counterpart simply hours earlier than assembly Putin, to mark the departure of a recent batch of cargo alongside the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route.
The route, also called the Middle Corridor, begins in Southeast Asia and China, operating by way of Kazakhstan, the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan, Georgia and additional to Europe. It has been closely promoted by the West as an alternative choice to Asia-Europe land transit through Russia.
Belarus will attend the Astana summit for the primary time as a full member of the SCO, the Kremlin stated. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres can be anticipated to attend the Astana gathering.