A signal to the West: At the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit, Chinese President Xi rolls out the red carpet for Kremlin leader Putin. China also wants to demonstrate unity with India.
At the summit of the pro-Russian Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), China called for unity in the face of conflicts and trade disputes. The world is experiencing changes unseen in a century, with significantly increasing instability and uncertainty, said President and Party leader Xi Jinping at the evening gala dinner in the northern Chinese port city of Tianjin.
The SCO bears an even greater responsibility for maintaining peace and stability in the region, he emphasized to numerous heads of state and government, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, who warmly welcomed Xi with a handshake. Upon arriving at the banquet, Xi chatted with what he often calls his"old friend," Putin. The Russian stood next to Xi in the family photo.
Meeting "old friends"
Once again, the summit offered Putin, who is isolated in part of the West due to his war of aggression against Ukraine, a platform to showcase his good relations with China and other Asian countries. Just as in China, US President Donald Trump recently rolled out the red carpet for Putin at a summit in Alaska.
During his four-day stay in China, Putin's focus is not on the West, but on building a multipolar world order, as he explained in an interview with the Chinese state news agency Xinhua. On September 3, Putin will attend a military parade in the Chinese capital Beijing, including with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, marking the 80th anniversary of the victory over Japan in World War II.
What is the Shanghai Cooperation Organization?
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in the Chinese capital, Beijing. Its founding members are China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Since then, India and Pakistan have joined, followed by Iran and Belarus.
The goals of the world's largest regional organization primarily include security cooperation, maintaining regional stability, and economic issues. According to critics, unofficial goals also include curbing US influence, especially through NATO, and preventing revolutions.
China is considered Russia's most important supporter in the war against Ukraine, as Beijing has so far not condemned Moscow's actions and has advocated Russian demands in its own proposals for resolving the conflict. Moreover, according to allegations by Western countries, China is supplying Russia with goods that can be used for both civilian and military purposes, thus supporting the Russian arms industry.
Thaw between China and India
The conversation between Xi and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was also under scrutiny. As a sign of improving relations, Xi called for closer cooperation with India. China and India are partners, not rivals, he told Modi. Both countries represent mutual development opportunities, not threats.
Modi praised the"productive" meeting with Xi. After years of diplomatic icy skies, the world's two most populous countries are once again drawing closer together. The reason for the sour mood is a decades-long dispute over a region in the Himalayas, which Beijing believes lies in southern Tibet and New Delhi considers to be in the north of the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. In 2020, soldiers from both sides clashed there, killing 20 Indians and four Chinese.
Danger to US relations with India?
For Modi, this was his first visit to China in seven years. He had previously agreed with his counterpart Shigeru Ishiba in Japan to double private investment over the next ten years.
Modi likely traveled to China with considerable resentment over the trade dispute with the US. US President Donald Trump had recently doubled the tariff on imports from India to 50 percent because of its oil deals with Russia.
While some observers see Modi's visit to China as a signal of rapprochement, many consider New Delhi's departure from Washington unlikely given the importance of the US to India in geopolitical matters.
An alliance on shaky ground
"With the summit, China is demonstrating its role in international relations," Claus Soong of the Berlin-based Mercator Institute for China Research told the dpa news agency. But it also shows that, despite the intensifying competition between China and the US and the growing alienation, it has friends.
In Soong's view, however, the SCO lacks a solid foundation for cohesion among its member states. This is due to differing geopolitical interests. In the past, cracks in the group's unity have repeatedly appeared due to disputes among individual members.
According to some analysts, Beijing therefore wants to prove that it is capable of bringing rivals to the table. The summit in Tianjin is intended to demonstrate strength and unity. After all, many SCO states currently have in common that they are arguing with the US and President Trump over tariffs and trade.
