The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and BRICS have become key pillars in the emerging multipolar world order, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with Chinese news agency Xinhua, the text of which is also published on the Kremlin's website.
"The Shanghai Cooperation Organization and BRICS have well established themselves as key pillars of the emerging multipolar world order," Putin said. "They have come to be reputable and dynamic international platforms whose participants build constructive political, security, economic and humanitarian interaction."
The Russian president said Moscow and its partners "actively contributed to launching multilateral associations and mechanisms that are independent of the West and are successfully operating," adding that they work to "build on the principles of equality, justice, transparency, respect and consideration of each other's interests."
Putin added that Moscow and Beijing have "similar or coinciding positions on key issues on the international agenda" and advocate "for the primacy of international law, equal, indivisible, comprehensive and sustainable security at both the global and regional level with the UN's central coordinating role." Both Russia and China also reject the West's "attempts to impose an order based on lies and hypocrisy, on some mythical rules of no one knows whose making."
The leader highlighted that Russia's and China's performance against the backdrop of economic turmoil in the West confirms that the sovereign course chosen is the right one.
The Problem With the West & Ukraine
The Russian president noted that the West turns a blind eye to the fact that Ukraine is carrying out terrorist acts on the territory of Russia. Ukraine and its Western patrons are not ready for equal, honest and open dialogue, he added.
The main problem of negotiations on Ukraine is the reliability of guarantees, as the West prefers a world order not based on international law, Putin said. He stressed that Western elites are trying to "punish" Russia, isolate and weaken it, embezzle its assets.
The head of state underlined that Russia and its partners are not satisfied with the state of affairs in the world when the West does not allow other nations to choose with whom to cooperate.
He emphasized that Western countries, led by the US, refuse to respect civilizational and cultural diversity and are resorting to neocolonial methods to ensure their own well-being at the expense of other countries.