Xi calls for efforts to ‘safeguard peace’, ‘oppose protectionism’

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, state media said.

Xi “called for efforts to safeguard regional peace and ensure common security”, state news agency Xinhua said.

“Achieving long-term regional peace and stability is our common responsibility,” state broadcaster CCTV quoted him as saying.

Xi said China would “persist in the correct direction of economic globalisation, 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 economic cooperation and diplomatic contacts, with their strategic partnership having only grown closer since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

While China says it is a neutral party to the Ukraine conflict, it has been criticised for refusing to condemn Moscow for its offensive.

During a March summit in Moscow, Xi invited Putin to visit Beijing and the two leaders declared that ties were “entering a new era”.

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