Chinese President Xi Jinping has urged regional leaders to oppose “Cold War mentality” at a gathering of a security bloc that Beijing has touted as an alternative to the Western-led international order.

In a speech to attendees of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit on Monday, Xi said the member states are facing increasingly complicated security and development challenges as the world becomes “chaotic and intertwined”.

“Looking back, despite tumultuous times, we have achieved success by practising the Shanghai spirit,” Xi said.

“Looking to the future, with the world undergoing turbulence and transformation, we must continue to follow the Shanghai spirit, keep our feet on the ground, forge ahead, and better perform the functions of the organisation.”

Calling for an “equal and orderly multipolarisation” of the world, Xi said the bloc should work towards the creation of a “more just and equitable global governance system”.

The Chinese leader said Beijing would provide 2 billion yuan ($280m) in aid to member states this year and a further 10 billion yuan ($1.4bn) of loans to an SCO banking consortium.

“We must take advantage of the mega-scale market … to improve the level of trade and investment facilitation,” Xi said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko are among the more than 20 world leaders attending the two-day SCO summit, which opened on Sunday in China’s northern city of Tianjin.

Speaking at the summit, Putin hailed the bloc for reviving “genuine multilateralism” and defended Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

“This crisis wasn’t triggered by Russia’s attack on Ukraine, but was a result of a coup in Ukraine, which was supported and provoked by the West,” Putin said.

“The second reason for the crisis is the West’s constant attempts to drag Ukraine into NATO.”

Putin said “a fair balance in the security sphere” would have to be restored for long-term peace in Ukraine.

Earlier in the day, leaders from the 10 member states of the bloc posed for a group photo on a red carpet at the venue.

Xi, Putin and Modi could be seen chatting while flanked by their translators.

Modi and Putin, who were pictured holding hands, held talks in the afternoon.

Putin and Modi spent nearly an hour talking “face-to-face” in the Russian leader’s armoured presidential car before the start of an official bilateral meeting, Russian state media reported.

Established in 2001, the SCO began as a grouping of six Eurasian nations – China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan – but has since expanded to comprise 10 permanent members and 16 dialogue and observer countries.

Analysts say that China intends to use the gathering to promote an alternative to the United States-led global order and repair ties with India amid a shifting geopolitical environment under US President Donald Trump.

[Aljazeera]