Russian President Vladimir Putin used the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit on Monday to demonstrate to the West that he is not completely cornered and to project the image that he still has support despite three years of war in Ukraine. For Putin, every trip abroad has become an exercise in diplomatic survival since his decision to invade Ukraine. And in Tianjin, he has found one of the few venues where he can still wield influence. The coincidence at this forum between Putin and the leaders of the two most populous countries on the planet, China and India, has represented the display of an alternative axis of power to that of Donald Trump's United States.

In the port city southeast of Beijing, which is currently hosting a summit shaping a new axis of power against the United States, the Russian president praised the"efforts" and "proposals" of China and India aimed at "facilitating the resolution of the Ukrainian crisis." "This conflict did not arise as a result of a 'Russian attack on Ukraine,' but as a consequence of a coup d'état in Ukraine instigated by the West in 2014," reports the Russian state news agency Tass. The Kremlin invaded the neighboring country in February 2022, thus starting a war that, three and a half years later, remains uncertain.

The Russian leader also indicated that the understanding reached at his meeting with US President Donald Trump in Alaska last month"opens a path" toward a possible peace. However, Putin insisted that the"continuous attempts by the West" to drag Kiev into NATO are "one of the main causes of the conflict," Tass quoted him as saying, as it"represents a direct threat to Russia's security."

In addition to meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Putin held a bilateral meeting with his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, during which the latter “welcomed all recent efforts seeking peace” and called for “all parties to move forward constructively,” according to the Times of India. “A way must be found to end this conflict as soon as possible and establish lasting peace. This is a call to all of humanity.”

The world's most populous country has been enduring for days the highest US tariff on any nation, matched only by the one it imposes on Brazil, with the justification that it buys large volumes of Russian oil.

This Monday, Putin also met face-to-face with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Both men praised bilateral energy agreements, and Erdogan expressed his willingness to lend a hand to achieve peace in Ukraine.

Final Declaration

The Tianjin summit, attended by more than 20 heads of state and government, including India's Modi, Iran's Masud Pezeshkian, and Belarus's Alexander Lukashenko—a close ally of Putin—has been presented by the Asian giant with great fanfare as one of the most important diplomatic events of the year.

The leaders of the ten SCO member states concluded their meeting with the signing, this Monday, of a final declaration that mentions Gaza but not Ukraine. It calls for adapting the UN to current political and economic realities, condemns unilateral sanctions, and opens the door to the creation of a regional development bank, among other regional proposals. A broad group of leaders from the Global South, in short, raising the banner of multilateralism.

Xi on Monday asserted the SCO's role as a promoter of"true multilateralism" and as a platform for outlining a new economic and security order to counter US hegemony. He called for a"fairer and more reasonable" international system and reinforced the message that Eurasia can speak with one voice. The family photo of the bloc's partners epitomizes precisely this idea, with China, Russia, and India converging in their attempt to project unity in the face of a world shaken by the protectionist fragmentation initiated by Trump.

The final declaration, published today, reflects the Eurasian partners' ambition to present themselves as an agenda-setting bloc on issues ranging from regional security to global governance. The text expresses"deep concern over the escalation of the conflict between Israel and Palestine" and condemns the "actions that have caused numerous civilian casualties and a humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip." It also emphasizes that "the only way" to ensure peace and stability in the Middle East "is a comprehensive and just solution to the Palestinian question."

The members also strongly criticize "the military aggression" perpetrated in June "by Israel and the United States against Iran," "particularly against civilian nuclear facilities," the statement emphasizes. That attack, the text continues,"constitutes a serious violation of international law." The ten partners emphasize that,"even in situations of armed conflict, nuclear security and the protection of atomic facilities must be guaranteed."

Although Putin did openly refer to the war in Ukraine in his address to his partners, the joint statement makes no mention of the war on European soil.

Rapprochement between China and India

The summit was also marked by the rapprochement between China and India, after ties entered a downward spiral in 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, following a border clash that left around twenty soldiers dead in the Himalayas.

During a bilateral meeting with his Indian counterpart on Sunday, Xi emphasized that the two most populous nations on the planet should be “partners, not rivals,” while Modi maintained that stable cooperation between the two powers “is necessary for a multipolar Asia in line with the trends of the 21st century.”

The Indian prime minister also emphasized that New Delhi and Beijing"claim strategic autonomy" and that their relations "should not be viewed through the prism of a third country," a statement that was quickly interpreted as a message to Trump. Modi's every gesture in Tianjin has been interpreted in two ways: toward Beijing and also toward Washington.

26 members and 26 trillion GDP

The SCO—now"the world's largest regional organization," as Chinese authorities repeatedly claim—has 26 participating countries (ten are full members, 14 are dialogue partners, and two are observers) with a combined GDP of nearly $30 trillion (almost €26 trillion).

The forum was founded in 2001 by China, Russia, and four Central Asian republics (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan), with the priority of strengthening border security and coordinating the fight against terrorism. Since then, it has expanded three times—in 2017, with the accession of India and Pakistan; in 2023, with the accession of Iran; and in 2024, with the accession of Belarus—extending the scope of a platform that, while not a NATO-style military alliance (it lacks mutual defense clauses), has established itself as a forum for political, economic, and security cooperation under the leadership of Beijing and Moscow.

The Tianjin meeting is the most attended event so far, with the additional presence of 14 dialogue partners—including Turkey, Egypt, and Myanmar—along with several Gulf monarchies and Armenia. Mongolia and Afghanistan are observers, although the latter has inactive status. Vietnam also attended as a special guest of the host country.