Xi and Putin outline ambitions for Eurasian security club – Euractiv

July 5, 2024

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin called on Thursday (July 4) for closer security, political and economic cooperation between the countries of the vast Eurasian region as a counterweight to Western alliances.

They spoke on the second and final day of a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in the Kazakh capital Astana, a club founded in 2001 by Russia, China and the Central Asian states, which now includes India, Iran and Pakistan.

“Facing the real challenges of interference and division, SCO members should strengthen their unity and jointly combat external interference,” the Xinhua news agency quoted Xi as saying, warning against the West’s “Cold War mentality.”

In his address to the SCO, President Putin reiterated Russia’s call for “a new architecture of cooperation, indivisible security and development in Eurasia, replacing the outdated Eurocentric and Euro-Atlantic models that gave one-sided advantages only to certain states.”

He again blamed the West for the war in Ukraine and said Russia was ready to freeze the conflict if Kiev and its backers accepted Moscow’s conditions for talks.

Putin said last month that the proposed new Eurasian security pact should be open to all countries in the region, including current NATO members. But the goal, he said, should be a gradual withdrawal of all external military presence from Eurasia – a clear reference to the United States.

The SCO states are new major buyers of Russian raw materials such as oil and gas, as Moscow now has to turn its focus to Asia due to the Western sanctions imposed in the wake of the Ukraine war.

“Multipolar world”

Putin on Thursday also welcomed the increasing use of national currencies – instead of the dollar – in trade between SCO countries and called for the creation of a new payment system within the group.

Due to Western sanctions, Moscow is cut off from traditional payment systems such as SWIFT, while Russia’s foreign exchange reserves worth several hundred billion dollars remain frozen.

“The multipolar world has become a reality,” Putin said. “More and more countries support a fair world order and are ready to vigorously defend their legal rights and traditional values.”

Separately, India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar met with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on the sidelines of the SCO meeting and agreed to intensify talks to resolve border issues that have strained relations since an armed clash in 2020.

Belarus joins the club

Belarus joined the SCO on Thursday, becoming its tenth member state.

“Belarus has completed all the necessary procedures on the way to SCO membership in a short period of time,” said Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev at the opening of the second day of the SCO meetings in Astana and proposed the signing of the relevant protocols.

Belarus became a dialogue partner of the SCO in 2010 and an observer state in 2015.

The organization was founded in Shanghai in 2001. It originally consisted of six countries – Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. India and Pakistan joined the bloc in 2017, followed by Iran in 2023.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres attended the SCO summit.

(With additional reporting by Georgi Gotev)