BBC News:
Russia will continue to oppose Western sanctions, President Vladimir Putin has said, following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
His address to a virtual Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit was his first to an international meeting since last month’s mutiny in Russia.
Mr Putin backed trade accords between SCO nations in local currencies – seen as an attempt to blunt sanctions.
The 2023 SCO summit is taking place virtually, under India’s leadership.
Mr Putin used the platform to send a message of defiance to the West, saying “Russia counters all these external sanctions, pressures and provocations and continues to develop as never before”.
He has made several public appearances since the Wagner mercenary group staged a short-lived mutiny in late June, but this was the first time he’d been seen with a group of international leaders.
“I would like to thank my colleagues from the SCO countries who expressed support for the actions of the Russian leadership to protect the constitutional order and the life and security of citizens,” he told the summit in a televised address from the Kremlin in Moscow.
Mr Putin added that more than 80% of trade between Chinese and Russian people was in roubles and yuan, and urged other SCO members to follow the same process.
He also welcomed Russian ally Belarus’s application to become a permanent member of the SCO at the next summit.
India’s PM Narendra Modi called on SCO members to boost trade, connectivity and tech co-operation, among other things.
But he didn’t directly refer to either the war in Ukraine or China’s increasingly assertive stance in the Indo-Pacific. India – historically non-aligned – had to walk a tight diplomatic rope, due to its increasingly strong ties with the West.
Just days earlier the US had rolled out the red carpet for Mr Modi when he was received in Washington on a state visit.
