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China’s Xi Jinping urged Russian, Iranian and other leaders on Tuesday to work towards safeguarding “regional peace” as he addressed a virtual summit of their Shanghai alliance.
Xi “called for efforts to safeguard regional peace and ensure common security”, state news agency Xinhua said, adding that he urged member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation to “follow the right direction and enhance their solidarity and mutual trust”.
Russian President Vladimir Putin also addressed the meeting, his first summit since a short-lived mutiny last month after the head of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, led a failed rebellion against the Kremlin.
Xi’s speech followed an apparent dig by India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is hosting the virtual meeting — at arch-rival but fellow SCO member Pakistan.
“Some countries use cross border terrorism as an instrument in theirĀ policies, (they) give shelter to terrorists,” Modi said, without naming specific nations. “SCO should not hesitate to criticise such countries.”
India regularly accuses Pakistan of helping rebel groups, and the history of the two nuclear-armed neighbours has been mired in violence and bloodshed.
“Terrorism remains a major threat to regional and global peace,” Modi told the eight-member SCO, which is headquartered in Beijing but hosted by New Delhi which holds the rotating chair. “To deal with this challenge, decisive action is necessary”.
Pakistan is also taking part in the summit, with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif calling it an “important forum for regional security and prosperity”, Islamabad’s foreign ministry said in a statement ahead of the meeting.
– Iran set to join –
Created in 2001 to discuss security and economic matters, other SCO members are Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, with countries including Belarus and Mongolia invited as observers.
Iran is due to join the grouping, with Tehran having intensified its diplomacy with friends and foes alike in recent months, seeking to reduce its isolation, improve its economy and project strength.
Encompassing a vast stretch of the globe from Moscow to Beijing, the bloc makes up around half the world’s population — when including both member states as well as observer and “dialogue partner” nations.
India, which also host the G20 summit in September, is walking a diplomatic tightrope. Uniquely, it is a member of both the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and the Quad, set up with the United States, Japan, and Australia to counter Beijing’s growing assertiveness.
Modi was last month hosted in Washington with all the full pomp of a state visit, where US President Joe Biden spoke of “two great friends and two great powers”.
At the same time, Moscow remains by far India’s biggest arms supplier they have been allies for decades and New Delhi has been an enthusiastic buyer of cut-price Russian oil during the war in Ukraine.
India, with a rapidly growing economy, has surpassed China as the world’s most populous country and has a long-running territorial dispute with Beijing.