China will work with Russia as ‘great powers’ – Xi

Chinese President Xi Jinping wants to work with Moscow to take on the responsibilities of “great powers,” he told his Russian counterpart on Thursday at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Samarkand.

“China is willing to make efforts with Russia to assume the role of great powers, and play a guiding role to inject stability and positive energy into a world rocked by social turmoil,” Xi told Russian President Vladimir Putin during a leaders’ summit at the SCO.

Putin likewise praised the “multifaceted ties” the two countries have forged, in particular their trade relationship. Highlighting the exchange of $140 billion in trade with Beijing last year, he noted that the volume had increased 25% in the first half of 2022 and said he hoped the figure could reach $200 billion by the end of the year.

The Russian leader affirmed Moscow’s support for Beijing’s ‘One China’ policy and condemned “the attempts at provocations by the United States in and around Taiwan. Overall I have to say that attempts at creating a unipolar world have been quite ugly and unacceptable as of late for the majority of the nations on this planet.”

Putin thanked China for its cooperation on the foreign policy stage. “We highly value the balanced approach of our Chinese friends when it comes to the Ukrainian crisis,” he said. Acknowledging the Chinese may have questions and concerns about the future of the conflict, he pledged to explain everything in detail again.

“The organization includes countries with different cultural and civilizational traditions, foreign policy guidelines and models of national development. However, building work on the principles of equality and mutual benefit, respect for each other’s sovereignty and refusal to interfere in internal affairs made it possible to turn this organization into an effective mechanism for multilateral cooperation,” Putin explained.

The SCO has been meeting for over two decades and brings together nearly half the planet’s population, encompassing eight states that cover over half the world’s territory.