Chinese president says 'color revolutions' should be avoided.

(Reuters)- Chinese leader Xi Jinping said on Friday that the world has entered a new period of turbulence and that partners such as Russian President Vladimir Putin and Central Asian leaders must prevent foreign powers from instigating "color revolutions."

Xi, on his first trip outside China since the beginning of 2020, said at a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in the ancient Uzbek Silk Road city of Samarkand that they should support each other to prevent foreign interference.

"The world has entered a new period of turbulent change; we must understand the trend of the times, strengthen solidarity and cooperation, and promote the building of a closer community of shared future with the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation," Xi said.

"We must support each other's efforts to safeguard security and development interests, prevent external forces from organizing color revolutions, and jointly oppose interference in the internal affairs of other countries under any pretext."

Xi criticized "zero-sum games and bloc politics," a veiled reference to the United States, which Beijing has criticized in the past for relying on allies to combat China's spectacular rise to superpower-in-waiting status.

Putin, Russia's supreme leader since 1999, has repeatedly said that the United States is plotting so-called "color revolutions" similar to those that swept established elites from power in places like Ukraine.

The United States denies these allegations and says they demonstrate the paranoid nature of Putin's Russia.

The conflict in eastern Ukraine began in 2014 after a pro-Russian president was overthrown in Ukraine's "Maidan" Revolution and Russia annexed Crimea, with Russian-backed forces fighting against Ukrainian armed forces.

The Chinese Communist Party, obsessed with stability, which next month will likely give Xi a third term as leader and consolidate his place as the country's most powerful leader since Mao Zedong, has in the past warned against so-called "color revolutions."

 Putin and Xi

Xi and Putin last met at the opening of the Winter Olympics, where they declared a "limitless" partnership, supporting each other through the impasses in Ukraine and Taiwan with a promise to collaborate more against the West.

In a meeting on Thursday, Putin said he understood that Xi had doubts and concerns about the situation in Ukraine, but praised the Chinese leader for what he said was a "balanced" position on the conflict.

But there was no sign from Xi that his support for Putin was weakening. Xi did not mention the war in Ukraine.

Xi stayed away from a dinner attended by 11 heads of state, in accordance with his delegation's COVID-19 policy, an Uzbek government source told Reuters on Friday.

Putin, who has yet to publicly comment on the lightning defeat of his forces in northeastern Ukraine, said that emerging world powers would not accept the West's attempt to impose its rules on them from the outside.

"Fundamental transformations have been outlined in world politics and the economy, and they are irreversible," Putin said.

Sports in Shanghai?

Putin praised the SCO, a security body that includes Russia, China, India, Pakistan, and four former Soviet republics in Central Asia, encompassing half the world's population and a quarter of the global gross domestic product.

For Iran, it must be admitted, the SCO is a potential anti-US club: Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said the body needed to find ways to circumvent the US's "draconian" sanctions. 

The leaders discussed an eclectic mix of topics.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged leaders to address the supply chain crisis, while Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif spoke at length about devastating floods and climate change.

While the leaders of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan listened to Putin and Xi, a deadly border dispute quickly escalated into war before a ceasefire was finally agreed upon.

Putin even suggested that the group should consider holding its own major sporting competition.

His ally, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, suggested dates that would coincide with those of the 2024 Paris Olympics and the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics.

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