News - Middle East: Russian and Chinese presidents have urged for re-shaping the international order at the latest Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit which also saw the full-fledged accession of Iran to the organization signed by members.

Addressing the event on Friday in the Uzbek city of Samarkand, Russian President Vladimir Putin lauded the increasing influence of countries outside the West.

“Our integration is of a non-bloc nature, and we offer assistance in solving energy and food problems that emerge in the world, arising from a number of systemic mistakes in leading global economies in the area of finance and energy,” TASS quoted him as saying.

“Hopefully, other participants in economic cooperation will build their policy on the same principles as well, and stop using the tools of protectionism, illegal sanctions and economic egoism opportunistically,” the Russian president added.

“The growing role of new centers of power who cooperate with each other... is becoming more and more clear,” Putin added.

The summit marked the first face-to-face meeting between Putin and Xi since the start of the conflict in Ukraine, and also the Chinese leader’s first trip abroad since the early days of the coronavirus pandemic.