Putin stresses 'new power centres', Xi calls for 'more just' global order

Russian President Vladimir Putin has hailed the growing influence of "new centres of power", while China's Xi Jinping has called for regional countries to reshape the global order at a summit touted as a challenge to Western influence.

"The growing role of new centres of power who cooperate with each other...is becoming more and more clear," Putin told the meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in ex-Soviet Uzbekistan on Friday.

The SCO summit in Uzbekistan has brought together Putin and Xi with the leaders of several Asian countries including India and Pakistan, as Russia looks to show it has not been fully isolated by the conflict in Ukraine.

"We are open to cooperation with the entire world," Putin, who spoke after Xi, said in the city of Samarkand.

"Our policy is devoid of any selfishness. We hope others...will carry out their policies according to the same principles, and will stop using the instruments of protectionism, illegal sanctions and economic selfishness," Putin said, referring to Western sanctions slapped on Russia in response to its military campaign in Ukraine.

Xi told the summit that members should "abandon zero-sum games and bloc politics", as well as "uphold the international system with the United Nations at its core".

Leaders should "work together to promote the development of the international order in a more just and rational direction", Xi said.

READ MORE: Turkish, Chinese presidents hold talks in Uzbekistan on SCO sidelines

'Russia ready to give free fertilisers'

The SCO — made up of China, India, Pakistan, Russia and the ex-Soviet Central Asian nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan — was set up in 2001 as a political, economic and security organisation to rival Western institutions.

In his address, Putin said Russia was ready to provide more than 300,000 tonnes of Russian fertilisers stuck at European ports to the developing world for free if Europe agreed to further relax sanctions on Russian exports.

He added that Europe had only "partially" removed sanctions that Moscow says block its ability to sell and send fertilisers around the world.

Putin said Russia welcomed a decision by the European Union to ease some logistical sanctions on Russian exports, but accused the bloc of acting "selfishly" by only lifting sanctions for its own members.

"Only they can purchase our fertilisers. But what about the developing world and the world's poorest countries," Putin said.

Allowing Russian fertilisers reach global markets was part of a landmark Ankara-brokered grain deal reached with Ukraine, Türkiye and the United Nations in July that saw Russia lift its military blockade of Ukraine's southern ports and allow Kiev to start exporting grain.

Putin said Russia has 300,000 tonnes of fertilisers currently sitting in European ports that Moscow was ready to send to the developing world for free when the sanctions are lifted.

Putin and Xi's address to the summit came a day their first face-to-face talks since the start of the conflict in Ukraine.

On Thursday, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV quoted Xi as saying that China was willing to work with Russia to support "each other's core interests", while Putin took a clear broadside at the US and blasted what he called "attempts to create a unipolar world".

READ MORE: Putin supports Xi on Taiwan, praises 'Moscow-Beijing tandem' on Ukraine