ASTANA: Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin pressed their case on Thursday for closer security, political and economic cooperation between countries in the vast Eurasian region as a counterweight to Western alliances. They were speaking on the second and final day of a summit in the Kazakh capital Astana of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a club founded in 2001 by Russia, China and Central Asian states that now includes India, Iran and Pakistan. “SCO members should consolidate unity and jointly oppose external interference in the face of the real challenges of interference and division,” Xi was quoted