ASTANÁ — The President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, and the president of China, Xi Jinping attended on Thursday a summit of a security group created by Moscow and Beijing to confront Western alliances such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (I TAKE).
Putin and Xi joined leaders of other member countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) at their annual meeting in the Kazakh capital Astana.
China, Russia and four former Soviet Central Asian nations — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan — formed the group in 2001 to foster regional security and economic cooperation. India, Pakistan and Iran later joined. Russia’s ally and western neighbor Belarus joined the group on Thursday.
Observer states and dialogue partners include Türkiye, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
In his speech, Putin stressed the group’s emphasis on ensuring the security of its members and stressed that the SCO will form a specialized center to coordinate the response to various security challenges. He added that the group’s members will also support a special program to combat separatism and extremism.
“Cold War”
Xi called on SCO members to show solidarity in the face of “the real challenges of intervention and polarization,” according to a transcript of his speech carried by Xinhua news agency.
“Faced with the real threat of the Cold War mentality, we have to safeguard the balance of security,” he added.
In addition to Putin and Xi, and the summit’s host, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Thursday’s meeting was attended by Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif; Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev; Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon; Kyrgyz President Sadyr Zhaparov; and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
Iran has yet to choose a successor to President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash in May, and is holding a runoff election on Friday, with acting President Mohammad Mokhbar taking the field.
Other guests at the meeting included Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres, who is visiting Central Asia, is also expected to attend.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sent his foreign minister. Indian media speculated that the newly re-elected Modi was busy with the parliamentary session that began last week.
For Putin, the summit offered another venue to demonstrate what he called “the failure of Western efforts to isolate Russia” over its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Speaking at the summit, Putin recalled his June comment that hostilities could end if Ukraine withdraws its troops from the four regions Moscow annexed by 2022 and abandons plans to join NATO. kyiv and its allies have rejected the idea.
Putin also thanked SCO members for their proposals for a peace deal, saying Moscow would take them into account.
Peace plan
Moscow has praised a peace plan for Ukraine put forward by China last year, which was rejected by Ukraine and the West because it did not call for Russian withdrawal from occupied areas of Ukraine.
At a summit with Xi on Wednesday, Putin hailed the organization as “one of the key pillars of a fair, multipolar world order” and said ties between Moscow and Beijing were going through “the best period in their history.”
It was their second meeting in as many months, following Putin’s visit to China, which underlined Beijing’s political support for Moscow amid Western sanctions and China’s role as a major market for Russian oil and gas. Russia has also relied on Beijing as a major source of high-tech imports to keep its military machine running.
The SCO helps China project its influence, especially in Central Asia and the global south. Xi last week called for “bridges of communication” between countries and wants to further promote China as an alternative to the United States and its allies.
For host Kazakhstan and the other Central Asian nations, the meeting is a way to expand their cooperation with larger and more powerful neighbours. Kazakhstan, for example, often deals with both Russia and China, as well as seeking ties with the West.
In his opening remarks at the summit, Tokayev described the SCO as “one of the most influential international structures” in the world.
Source: With information from AP
