Xi to welcome Modi, Putin at Tianjin SCO Summit after US tariff row
By Anjali Sharma
WASHINGTON – Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday announced that he will personally welcome Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit in Tianjin, China in a major show of Global South solidarity after US President Donald Trump’s faceoff with BRICS nations and the imposed tariffs on several members of the group, including India and Brazil.
PM Modi is scheduled to visit China later this week, and Russian President Putin will be arriving in Tianjin for the SCO Summit, scheduled to be held in the port city from August 31 to September 1, as per media reports.
According to media reports over 20 world leaders from Central Asia, the Middle East, South Asia, and Southeast Asia have been invited to attend the summit, which came in the wake of growing global trade tensions due to US President Donald Trump’s imposition of tariffs.
The 2025 SCO Summit, the largest since it was founded in 2001, is already being hailed by China as “an important force in building a new type of international relations.”
The experts believe that Chinese President Xi Jinping wants to use the SCO Summit as an opportunity to showcase how a new world order will look without America and Europe.
Russia and other Asian countries were part of this framework India joined the group as new world order.
The ties between India and China have historically not been friendly and were particularly strained in 2020 after the military standoff.
US and Europe, India has been a key partner in their Indo-Pacific policy to counter the growing rise of China.
Trump second term has apparently undone the efforts of the last two and a half decades with its reckless and so-called “America First” policies.
He jumped into the India-Pakistan conflict, apparently trying to cross a red line India has drawn since Independence.
No third-party mediation in India-Pakistan relations has been New Delhi’s stated policy.
Trump repeatedly claimed that he forced India to agree to a ceasefire with Pakistan during the 4 day conflict in May this year, Trump made India particularly uncomfortable.
He imposed 50 per cent tariffs on India forced New Delhi to take a step back and recalibrate its foreign policy.
India reset its ties with China, as both countries resumed high-level engagement.
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar visited China and met President Xi Jinping in July.
Jaishankar’s first meeting with Xi since the 2020 military standoff between the armies of the two countries.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi also visited India, where he held a series of meetings with Jaishankar, NSA Ajit Doval, and PM Modi.
Wang formally handed over President Jinping’s invitation to Modi to the SCO Summit.
