Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin attended the summit on Wednesday of a regional security group that Moscow and Beijing see as a counter to U.S. influence in the energy-rich, former Soviet states of Central Asia.
The meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization came a day after Mr. Putin issued a warning to Washington that the Russian-Chinese alliance could curb U.S. influence in global affairs.
"A shared stance of Russia and China on certain issues helps restrain some of our more hotheaded colleagues,'' Mr. Putin told reporters.
Mr. Putin also was set to confer briefly with officials from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran who are attending Wednesday's meeting as observers. His planned meeting with Iran's First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi comes as Washington and its allies contemplate tough new sanctions on Iran if it fails to come clean on its suspect nuclear programme.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton visited Moscow this week to press for Russian support for the plan, but Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov dimmed U.S. hopes, saying that even a threat of sanctions would be "counterproductive.''
Russia and China have resisted Western pressure for stronger punishment when the previous three sets of U.N. sanctions on Iran were passed.
