Russia and Belarus presidents joined two dozen Eurasian leaders on Monday at a ceremony hosted by China’s Xi Jinping, on the final day of a showpiece summit aimed at putting Beijing front and centre of regional relations.<\/p>\n
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit kicked off on Sunday in the northern port city of Tianjin, days before a massive military parade in the capital Beijing to mark 80 years since the end of World War II.<\/p>\n
The SCO comprises China, India, Russia, Pakistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Belarus — with 16 more countries affiliated as observers or “dialogue partners”.<\/p>\n
Billed as an “opening ceremony”, Monday’s gathering is the first time all the leaders assembled together at the summit, and Xi will deliver a speech.<\/p>\n
Russian President Vladimir Putin touched down in Tianjin on Sunday with an entourage of senior politicians and business representatives.<\/p>\n
Xi held a flurry of back-to-back bilateral meetings with leaders including Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko — one of Putin’s staunch allies — and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is on his first visit to China since 2018.<\/p>\n
Modi told Xi that India was committed to taking “forward our ties on the basis of mutual trust, dignity and sensitivity”.<\/p>\n