China’s leader urges attendees to oppose ‘cold war mentality’ while Russian president claims Ukraine war was ‘provoked by the west’
Xi Jinping has criticised the “bullying behaviour” of other countries while Vladimir Putin has blamed the west for his war on Ukraine, on the second day of a major summit in China which seeks to challenge western-led multilateral blocs.
The Shanghai Cooperation Summit (SCO) began in the city of Tianjin on Sunday, with Xi welcoming dozens of leaders from Eurasian member states and other partner and observer countries, including Putin, and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi.
In a speech to delegates on Monday, Putin claimed the war was not triggered by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but was “a result of a coup in Ukraine, which was supported and provoked by the west”.
“The second reason for the crisis is the west’s constant attempts to drag Ukraine into Nato,” the Russian president added.
