News - Middle East: Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for regional countries to reshape the international order while speaking at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Uzbekistan, which has been touted as a challenge to Western global dominance. 

Regional leaders, he stressed, should "work together to promote the development of the international order in a more just and rational direction", at a summit that also sees the participation of the leaders of Russia, Iran, and central Asian countries.

The SCO -- made up of China, India, Pakistan, Russia, and the ex-Soviet Central Asian nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan -- was set up in 2001 as a political, economic and security organization to rival Western institutions.

Members should "abandon zero-sum games and bloc politics," as well as "uphold the international system with the United Nations at its core," the Chinese leader was quoted as saying during the summit.

Earlier in the week, a senior Chinese diplomat said China is willing to shape the international order together with Russia in a “more just and rational direction”
“Under the strategic guidance of President Xi Jinping and President (Vladimir) Putin, the relationship between the two countries has always moved forward on the right track,” the Communist Party’s foreign affairs chief Yang Jiechi told Russia’s ambassador to China Andrey Denisov on Monday
Meanwhile, Putin spoke of "good opportunities" to intensify sports cooperation between the regional countries.

"There are good opportunities to intensify sports cooperation with the prospect of holding major sporting events under the auspices of the SCO. To do this, we could think about creating an association of sports organizations under our association," he told the summit.

Putin also hinted towards China-India to become a significant global counterweight to the American-led West, as Russia is being abandoned by the US over its military operation in Ukraine.

This is the first time Xi and Putin are meeting face to face ever since the Ukraine war broke out.
Speaking during a summit in Uzbekistan, Putin thanked China for what he called its balanced position toward Ukraine.