Russia's President Vladimir Putin walks with China's President Xi Jinping during the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation Summit in Tianjin. Photo / Vladimir Smirnov, pool, AFP
China’s President Xi Jinping has set out plans for a new world order to challenge the dominance of the United States-led West.
At a summit attended by the strongman leaders of Russia and India, Xi lashed out at the “bullying behaviour” and “Cold War mentality” of other countries – which appeared to be an attack on US President Donald Trump and his tariff war against Beijing and its allies.
He called for the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO) to expand its role, touting its “mega-scale market”, at the annual meeting of more than 20 non-Western leaders in Tianjin, in northern China.
“Global governance has reached a new crossroads,” Xi told leaders including Vladimir Putin, the Russian President, Narendra Modi of India, and Masoud Pezeshkian, the Iranian president.
“The shadows of Cold War mentality, bullying, are not dissipating, and there are new challenges that are increasing, not diminishing,” Xi said at the summit.
China and the US hit each other with tariffs of more than 100% before agreeing to lower them temporarily while trade negotiations take place.
Trump has threatened Putin with crippling tariffs if a peace deal with Ukraine is not agreed, and slapped India with a 50% tariff, one of the world’s highest, for buying discounted Russian crude oil.
Xi said at the summit: “We must continue to take a clear stand against hegemonism and power politics, and practise true multilateralism.”
Putin and Modi held hands as they walked side-by-side to greet Xi before the trio huddled, laughing before the photographers.
“All countries, regardless of size, strength or wealth, should equally participate in, decide on and benefit from global governance,” the Chinese President said before sketching out his vision for an alternative world order that prioritised the “global South”.
Underlining his intention to maximise Chinese influence in poorer nations, Xi announced plans for an SCO-run development bank, a co-operation platform for green and energy industries and US$1.4 billion ($2.4b) in loans over the next three years to SCO members.
Xi also said he was opening the way for the 10 SCO member states to use China’s BeiDou satellite system, an alternative to the US-controlled GPS.
His comments were speedily welcomed by Putin, a pariah in the West who enjoys a “friendship without limits” alliance with Xi.
Putin said Xi’s vision laid the foundation for a “new system of stability and security in Eurasia”.
“This security system, unlike Euro-centric and Euro-Atlantic models, would genuinely consider the interests of a broad range of countries, be truly balanced, and would not allow one country to ensure its own security at the expense of others,” he said.
Western sanctions on Russia since the illegal invasion of Ukraine in 2022 have made Putin dependent on China, and India, for sales of Russian crude oil.
The West accuses China and India of funding Putin’s war machine in Ukraine by buying the oil.
Putin wants trade settlement mechanisms that avoid the US dollar and euro, after Western sanctions on payment systems and Chinese banks hit Russian trade and called on SCO to sell joint bonds.
“All this will increase the effectiveness of our economic exchanges and protect them from fluctuations in the external environment,” Putin said in a speech where he blamed the West for the war in Ukraine.
“This crisis wasn’t triggered by Russia’s attack on Ukraine, but was a result of a coup in Ukraine, which was supported and provoked by the West,” he said.
“The second reason for the crisis is the West’s constant attempts to drag Ukraine into Nato,” Putin said.
He also claimed he wanted peace, thanking Modi and Xi for their efforts to end the war, and said he had reached “understandings” with Trump at the Alaska summit.
He also praised Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the President of Turkey, the sole Nato leader at the summit, for his mediation efforts after the men held bilateral talks.
Relations between Washington and New Delhi are strained over the US tariffsand also Trump’s claims to have ended India’s conflict with Pakistan.
India defends the oil imports as necessary to meet the needs of 1.4 billion people and insists it is not profiteering from the war.
Putin gave Modi – who has moved to repair relations with China after a long-running border feud – a lift to the venue for their bilateral talks in his armour-plated limousine.
The two men spoke alone in the car for a further 50 minutes in a conversation described in Russia as “only for their ears” and by Modi as “insightful”.
The Indian leader said the relationship with Moscow was “special and privileged”. Putin called him a “dear friend”.
The SCO, set up in 2001, is the successor to the Shanghai Five, a grouping of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, set up in 1996. It now also includes India, Pakistan, Iran, Belarus and Uzbekistan.
Iran, China and Russia signed a joint letter to the United Nations, calling a European attempt to invoke “snapback” sanctions on Iran legally baseless and politically destructive.
Putin will stay on in China to be the “main guest” at a military parade tomorrow, in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.
Kim Jong Un, the North Korean leader, will also be a guest of honour at the parade, which will unveil a series of ship-killing hypersonic missiles in a thinly veiled warning to the West.
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