Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and Russian President Vladimir Putin are set to converge in Tianjin on Sunday for the two-day Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit, in a high-profile display of strategic unity as US tariffs and sanctions loom large.
The summit arrives at a critical moment, with India facing 50 per cent levies from Washington, including a 25 per cent tariff for purchasing Russian crude, while China risks punitive 200 per cent tariffs over rare-earth exports. Russia continues to reel under Western sanctions.
Ahead of his arrival, Putin described Beijing as a “stabilising force” for global order, asserting that Russia and China remain “united in our vision of building a just, multipolar world order.”
The SCO, comprising China, Russia, India, Iran, Pakistan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, represents some 40 per cent of the world population and controls a significant portion of global energy resources. Delegations from 16 partner and observer states, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Turkey, and Southeast Asian nations, are expected to attend. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is also likely to be present.
The SCO, of which India became a full member in 2017, also brings together major Eurasian powers including China, Russia, Iran, and Central Asian republics. For India, the summit carries both strategic and economic significance, particularly as the US’s 50 per cent tariff regime, including penalties linked to Russian oil imports, reshapes trade dynamics.
Recent diplomacy has laid the groundwork for the visit. Talks between External Affairs Minister Wang Yi and Indian counterparts in Beijing stressed enhancing exchanges in tourism, trade, and connectivity. Both sides emphasised multilateralism, the importance of a rules-based global trading system, and safeguarding the interests of developing economies in an increasingly multipolar world.
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The Tianjin gathering offers a rare forum for Modi and Xi to reset bilateral ties after the 2020 Galwan clashes and marks Modi’s first SCO summit since skipping last year’s meeting in Kazakhstan. It will also provide a platform for Modi and Putin to discuss energy cooperation, despite US criticism of India’s Russian crude imports, which Washington claims fuels Moscow’s “war machine in Ukraine.”
While the United States will not officially participate, its tariff policies and trade pressures dominate discussions. “For this particular summit, the US may not be at the table, but the US is always present,” Yun Sun, director of the China Programme at the Stimson Center. Sushant Singh, Yale lecturer in South Asian Studies, added, “The one thing that they’re going to talk about is the United States, its policies, its tariffs.”
The Tianjin SCO Summit is expected to be the largest in the organisation’s history, with Xi emphasising China’s position as a stable alternative to Western-dominated global governance, and the troika of Modi, Xi, and Putin signalling a renewed push for a multipolar world.
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