Putin blames West for Ukraine conflict at SCO

'BLOC NEEDS TO UNDERPIN ECONOMIC AND SECURITY COOPERATION'

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TIANJIN: China has urged member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) to strengthen their collective financial security and voice in the world as pressure mounts from the United States and its allies.

Without naming any country, President Xi Jinping told the SCO state leaders – many of them facing blanket sanctions and punitive tariffs from the US – that the organisation needed to speed up and achieve "real results" to better protect themselves from "hegemonic" bullying.

To that end, Xi suggested that the group, which is meeting in the northern port city of Tianjin, set up an SCO development bank – an idea that was first floated in 2010 but has gained new urgency with American sanctions and duties.

China has been pushing the grouping to set up a development bank on the lines of the New Development Bank (NDB) of the BRICS and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), in which India is the second largest shareholder.