Russian President Vladimir Putin has used a high-level summit of non-NATO countries in China to advocate for a world order that is no longer aligned with the United States and Europe.
Addressing leaders at a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Tianjin, Putin said the Eurocentric and Euro-Atlantic model had outlived its purpose.
The future belongs to a system "that takes into account the interests of a maximum number of countries and is truly balanced," the Russian president was quoted as saying by Russian news agency TASS.
The SCO, a 10-member alliance that includes Asian powers such as China, India and Iran, should focus on domestic security as well as security on its external borders, he said.
Founded 24 years ago to promote security cooperation and economic ties, the SCO positions itself as a counterbalance to Western alliances, including NATO.
However, it has often struggled to present a united front on recent global conflicts and regional tensions.
China and India, for instance, have long disputed territories along their shared border, while India and Pakistan clashed in May following a terrorist attack.
In Tianjin, Putin also touched on his meeting with US President Donald Trump in Alaska earlier this month, which marked his return to the global stage following years of Western isolation over his war on Ukraine.
Repeating a long-held position, Putin said Ukraine's aspiration to join NATO was one of the causes of the conflict he ordered in February 2022.
