Ammon News - Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin pressed their vision at a regional summit on Monday for a new global security and economic order that prioritises the "Global South", in a direct challenge to the United States.

Xi was hosting more than 20 leaders of non-Western countries at a two-day summit in the northern Chinese port city of Tianjin of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).

The SCO must "promote the democratisation of international relations and enhance representation of developing countries", Xi said in a speech, adding that at a time of turbulence "global governance has reached a new crossroads".

"We must continue to take a clear stand against hegemonism and power politics, and practise true multilateralism," he said, in a veiled attack on the current U.S.-dominated world order.

However, Xi did not set out any concrete policies in what he called his "Global Governance Initiative" - the latest in a series of policy frameworks from Beijing that analysts say are mainly geared to promoting China's global leadership role.

Putin, whose country has forged even closer economic and security ties with China amid the fallout from the Ukraine war, said the SCO had revived "genuine multilateralism", with national currencies increasingly used in mutual settlements.

"This, in turn, lays the political and socio-economic groundwork for the formation of a new system of stability and security in Eurasia," Putin said.

"This security system, unlike Euro-centric and Euro-Atlantic models, would genuinely consider the interests of a broad range of countries, be truly balanced, and would not allow one country to ensure its own security at the expense of others."

Xi called for the creation of a new SCO development bank, in what would be a major step towards the bloc's long-held aspiration of developing an alternative payment system or common currency that circumvents the U.S. dollar.

Beijing will provide 2 billion yuan ($280 million) of free aid to member states this year and a further 10 billion yuan of loans to an SCO banking consortium, the Chinese leader said.

China will also build an artificial intelligence cooperation centre for SCO nations, which are also invited to participate in China's lunar research station, Xi added.

Speaking on the sidelines of the meeting on Sunday, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said China played a "fundamental" role in upholding global multilateralism.

Reuters