The leaders of China and Russia on Thursday urged their allies and partners to resist malign external influence, advancing their shared anti-Western agenda at a regional summit in Central Asia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping were in the Kazakh capital of Astana for a gathering of leaders from the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a regional bloc that Moscow and Beijing see as a counterweight to US "hegemony" on the world stage.
Xi called on the countries to "resist external interference" while Putin claimed "new centres" of political and economic might were on the rise.
"We should join hands to resist external interference, firmly support each other, take care of each other's concerns... and firmly control the future and destiny of our countries and regional peace and development in our own hands," Xi told the summit.
"It is of vital importance to the world that the SCO be on the right side of history and on the side of fairness and justice," he added.
In a joint declaration, published by the Kremlin, the group noted "tectonic shifts in global politics" and called for the bloc to play an enhanced role in global and regional security.
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