Xi Jinping at the SCO meeting
On Tuesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping addressed the virtual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. He emphasized the need of defending regional peace and vowed Beijing’s resistance to protectionism.
President Xi said, “Efforts to safeguard regional peace and ensure common security”.
“Achieving long-term regional peace and stability is our common responsibility”, he continued.
China, according to Xi, will “persist in the correct direction of economic globalization, oppose protectionism, unilateral sanctions, and the extension of national security concepts”.
In addition, the Chinese leader promised to promote political solutions to pressing international and regional issues while erecting a strong regional security barrier.
The SCO’s headquarter is in Beijing, but the virtual summit is being hosted by India, which holds the rotating chair, with leaders from Russia, Pakistan, and numerous Central Asian countries also in attendance.
Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke at the conference, his first since a brief rebellion staged by the Wagner mercenary group’s leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, last month.
China and Russia have increased economic collaboration and diplomatic contacts in recent years, and their strategic partnership has only gotten stronger since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
While China claims to be a neutral party in the Ukraine war, Beijing has been chastised for failing to denounce Moscow’s offensive.
Xi asked Putin to visit Beijing during a March summit in Moscow, and the two presidents declared that relations were ‘entering a new era’.
Also read: China’s Top Diplomat: Japan And South Korea Should Know Their Roots
