TIANJIN (Dispatches) - China’s President Xi Jinping blasted “bullying behavior” in the world order as he gathered Eurasian leaders Monday for a showpiece summit aimed at putting Beijing front and center of regional relations.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization, comprising China, India, Russia, Pakistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Belarus, is touted as a non-Western style of collaboration and seeks to be an alternative to traditional alliances.
Xi told the SCO leaders, including Russian and Belarusian presidents Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko, that the global international situation was becoming more “chaotic and intertwined.”
The Chinese leader also slammed “bullying behavior” from certain countries — a veiled reference to the United States.
“The security and development tasks facing member states have become even more challenging,” he added in his address to all the gathered dignitaries in the northern port city of Tianjin.
“Looking to the future, with the world undergoing turbulence and transformation, we must continue to follow the Shanghai spirit... and better perform the functions of the organization,” Xi said.
Putin touched down in Tianjin on Sunday with an entourage of senior politicians and business representatives.
Xi held a flurry of back-to-back bilateral meetings with leaders including Lukashenko and Modi who is on his first visit to China since 2018.
Modi told Xi that India was committed to taking “forward our ties on the basis of mutual trust, dignity and sensitivity.”
China and Russia have sometimes promoted the SCO as an alternative to organizations like NATO. This year’s summit is the first since Trump returned to the White House.
Official posters promoting the SCO lined Tianjin’s streets, displaying words such as “mutual benefit” and “equality” written in Chinese and Russian.
Many of the assembled dignitaries will be in Beijing on Wednesday to witness the military parade, which will also be attended by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
On Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that India and Russia are exploring ways to deepen their cooperation, after talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in China.
Modi said on social media they had an “excellent meeting” and discussed “ways to deepen bilateral cooperation in all sectors,” including trade, space, and security.
“We exchanged views on regional and global developments, including the peaceful resolution of the conflict in Ukraine. Our Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership remains a vital pillar of regional and global stability,” he wrote on X.
The SCO summit, which also involves 16 more countries as observers or “dialogue partners,” kicked off on Sunday, days before a massive military parade in the capital Beijing to mark 80 years since the end of World War II.