Chinese President Xi Jinping has urged members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) to take advantage of its “mega-scale market“, “Reuters“ reports. At the same time, he revealed his ambition for a new world order in security and economy that would challenge the United States, writes News.bg.
The SCO has created a model for a new type of international relations, Xi stressed in his opening speech, addressing more than 20 world leaders at a two-day summit held in the port city of Tianjin in northern China.
“We must advocate for an equitable and orderly multi-polarization of the world, inclusive economic globalization and promote the building of a more just and equitable global governance system,” he said.
China will provide two billion yuan ($280 million) in free aid to member states this year and another 10 billion yuan in loans to the SCO banking consortium, Xi added.
“We should take advantage of the mega-scale market to improve the level of trade and investment facilitation,” the Chinese leader insisted, calling on the SCO to strengthen cooperation in areas such as energy, infrastructure, science and technology and artificial intelligence.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other leaders from Central Asia, the Middle East, South Asia and Southeast Asia attended the opening ceremony in solidarity with the Global South.
The security-focused bloc, which began as a group of six Eurasian countries, has in recent years expanded to 10 permanent members and 16 observer states.
Xi Jinping called on the organization's partners to "resist the Cold War mentality and bloc confrontation" and support multilateral trading systems. His words were an apparent reference to US President Donald Trump's tariff war, which has disproportionately affected developing economies such as India, whose exports were hit with a 50% tariff last week.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Thursday that China had played a "fundamental" role in upholding global multilateralism.
Analysts say China will use the biggest summit of the year to showcase an alternative vision for global governance to the American-led international order - at a time of chaotic policymaking, US withdrawal from multilateral organisations and geopolitical changes.
Beijing is also using the summit as an opportunity to repair its relations with New Delhi.
Modi, in his first visit to China in seven years, and Xi Jinping yesterday agreed that their countries are development partners, not rivals, and discussed ways to improve trade relations amid uncertainty over global tariffs.