Current attempts to push for a unipolar world “have taken an absolutely ugly form lately, which the overwhelming majority of nations of the planet find unacceptable,”Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.

The remark came as he met his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

During the meeting, Putin thanked Xi for China’s balanced stance on the crisis in Ukraine. China has criticized Russia for having attacked the country, but blamed the US for triggering the escalation by its push to expand NATO.

Putin also reiterated Russia’s support of the ‘one China’ policy and Beijing’s claim of sovereignty over the island of Taiwan. The Chinese government has accused the US of undermining its territorial integrity by increasingly treating Taipei as a separate nation rather than a self-governing part of China.

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Iran given roadmap for joining Russia and China in major bloc

Putin praised the SCO as “a forum for constructive and creative cooperation.” He remarked that the members of the group have different cultural traditions, economic models and foreign policy priorities. Their willingness to work together as equal partners respecting each other has helped bolster the SCO’s prominence in a relatively short period of time, the Russian leader remarked.

“It is now the biggest regional organization in the world, uniting a vast geographic space and about half of our planet’s population,”Putin stressed.

The SCO is an economic integration and trust-building organization that unites a number of Eurasian nations, including Russia and China. The list of its other permanent members includes India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. During the ongoing summit of the leaders of member states, Iran signed a commitment to upgrade its status from an observer to a full member.