ISLAMABAD, July 4 (INP): Chinese President Xi Jinping called on Tuesday for efforts to safeguard “regional peace” and said Beijing would “oppose protectionism” as he addressed a virtual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.
Xi “called for efforts to safeguard regional peace and ensure common security,” state news agency Xinhua reported.
“Achieving long-term regional peace and stability is our common responsibility,” CCTV quoted him as saying.
Xi said China would “persist in the correct direction of economic globalization, oppose protectionism, unilateral sanctions and extension of national security concepts.”
The Chinese leader also pledged to “promote political solutions to pressing international and regional issues, building a firm regional security barrier,” CCTV said.
The eight-member SCO is headquartered in Beijing, but the virtual summit is being hosted by India — which holds its rotating chair — with the leaders of Russia, Pakistan, and several Central Asian countries also participating.
Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed the summit — his first since a short-lived mutiny last month led by the head of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin.
China and Russia have in recent years ramped up economiccooperation and diplomatic contacts, with their strategic partnership having only grown closer since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
