Xi Jinping criticises ‘bullying behaviour’ and Putin blames west for Ukraine war at Shanghai summit
China’s leader urges attendees to oppose ‘cold war mentality’ while Russian president claims Ukraine war was ‘provoked by the west’
In his speech to delegates at the SCO Summit on Monday, Russian leader Vladimir Putin claimed the Ukraine war was not triggered by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but was “a result of a coup in Ukraine, which was supported and provoked by the west”.
“The second reason for the crisis is the west’s constant attempts to drag Ukraine into Nato,” the Russian president added.
Putin’s remarks followed a speech by Xi Jinping as the host. The Chinese president said -- “the security and development tasks facing member states have become even more challenging”, and urged them to “oppose cold war mentality, bloc confrontation, and bullying”.
Xi praised the growth of the SCO, saying they were building a new model of “true multilateralism”.
He urged further cooperation of member countries in leveraging their “mega-scale markets” to boost trade and investment, and said China would provide 2bn yuan ($280m) of free aid to member states this year and a further 10bn yuan of loans to a SCO banking consortium.
Among the attendees has been of course is India’s leader Narendra Modi.
This was PM Moid's first visit to China in seven years. The two nations had long traded hostilities over a Himalayan border dispute, trade, and China’s support for India’s rival Pakistan.
But the meeting on Sunday, five days after Washington imposed punishing 50% tariffs on Indian goods due to Delhi’s purchases of Russian oil, showed the relationship was thawing.
Xi said China-India ties could be “stable and far-reaching” if both sides focused on viewing each other as partners instead of rivals, state media reported.
Xi, Putin and Modi were seen chatting on live footage, the three leaders flanked by their official translators. In his remarks on Monday, Putin also praised the efforts of China and India “aimed at facilitating the resolution of the Ukrainian crisis”.
Many of the assembled dignitaries will be in Beijing on Wednesday to witness a military parade marking 80 years since the end of the second world war. The event will also be attended by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
On Monday, China’s foreign minister Wang Yi said that the summit had issued a statement calling for the international community to uphold the “correct” perspective on world war two and said that SCO members had fought side by side in that conflict.
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