SCO Summit in China a Stage for Xi’s Post-American Vision

• Xi Jinping to host Modi and Putin at SCO summit in Tianjin, projecting Global South solidarity.
• Modi’s first China visit in seven years, likely to focus on border détente and trade ties.
• Putin covets legitimacy, remaining in office long enough to attend a WWII military parade in Beijing.
• Experts: SCO yields few tangible outcomes, but appearances trump reality.

GG News Bureau
Beijing, 26thAug. – When Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives in Tianjin next week, welcomed by Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the world will witness what Beijing hopes to depict as a muscular challenge to the American-led system.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit will gather more than 20 world leaders, including heads of state from Central Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. For Xi, it is a moment of theatre: a tableau of Global South solidarity, broadcast to the world at a time of deep geopolitical flux under Donald Trump’s second presidency.

Xi’s Global South Moment

The SCO, established in 2001 as a regional security group, has since grown to 10 permanent members and 16 observer or dialogue partners. Its agenda has widened from counterterrorism to economics, climate, and military cooperation. However, the real worth of this year’s summit is not to be found in new deals, but in symbolism.

“Xi will want to leverage the summit to make visible what a post-American-led world order looks like,” said Eric Olander, editor of The China-Global South Project. “Just see how much BRICS unsettled Trump. That’s exactly what these blocs are meant to do.”

For China, still navigating Western pushback on its rise and attempting to shield Moscow from sanctions, the summit is an opportunity to demonstrate that the Global South is not only willing to resist U.S. pressure but is also capable of presenting an alternative vision.

Modi’s Delicate Balancing Act

For Narendra Modi, this summit is a great deal more than symbolic. It is his first visit to China in seven years since the violent 2020 border clashes snapped relations. After years of standoffs, the Modi administration has been gingerly moving toward détente with Beijing.

Now, presented with a fresh U.S. tariff onslaught that puts India’s $87 billion export market at risk, New Delhi might have to adjust again. “It’s likely India will swallow their pride and put this year’s SCO disputes behind them,” Olander said.

In the wings, an Xi-Modi summit is likely to concentrate on incremental measures: withdrawals of troops along the contested Himalayan border, easing of trade restrictions, softening of visa policies, and perhaps simultaneous announcements in such areas as climate cooperation. For Modi, projecting a stable China relationship could provide a counterweight to American pressure on trade and create new channels of influence in Asia.

Putin’s Diplomatic Lifeline

For Vladimir Putin, the SCO summit offers much-needed legitimacy. Isolated by the West since the Ukraine war, Putin has repeatedly turned to forums such as BRICS and the SCO to demonstrate that Russia is not alone. The fact that he has turned up in Tianjin, along with Modi and Xi, highlights Moscow’s ongoing presence in Eurasian geopolitics.

Putin is not only going to the SCO but also staying on in China for a World War Two military parade in Beijing – an unusually extended foreign visit for a Russian leader since 2022. The optics are priceless for Moscow: Russia shoulder-to-shoulder with China and India while Western leaders boycott.

SCO’s Increasing But ‘Fuzzy’ Role

Despite the dramatic optics, analysts warn that the substantive effectiveness of the SCO is limited.

“The SCO’s clear vision and realistic implementation are quite hazy,” said Manoj Kewalramani, director of the Indo-Pacific Research Programme at Bangalore’s Takshashila Institution. “It’s an increasingly powerful convening platform, a good one for projecting narratives, but its impact on hard security problems is still limited.”

In fact, the organisation has repeatedly been immobilised by internal rivalries. In June, its defence ministers were unable to issue a collective statement after India complained that a reference to a terror attack in Kashmir was left out. New Delhi also declined to join in the bloc’s condemnation of Israeli attacks on Iran.

But China finds power in optics rather than substance. By bringing under the same umbrella its adversaries and competitors, the SCO demonstrates the convening power of Beijing in the Global South.

Optics Over Outcomes

It is widely believed by analysts that the Tianjin summit will deliver little in terms of tangible security or economic dividends. Rather, the gathering is being choreographed as a stage-managed display of unity.

This summit is about optics, actually very strong optics,” Olander stressed. “Xi wants to demonstrate that all the while Trump has been throwing boulders, the Global South is rallying around Beijing, not Washington.

Yet, for nations such as India, the math is less about challenging America directly and more about hedging bets in uncertain times. Modi will likely show up, participate, and then slip away unnoticed after the summit, letting Xi and Putin take center stage.

The Larger Message

Though the boundaries of the SCO are as familiar as the summits themselves, the event is sure to reaffirm one simple message: the world is no longer unipolar. Whether or not the bloc will be able to produce genuine cooperation, the fact that China, India, and Russia stand together sends a message that speaks volumes across Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

For Xi Jinping, it is a chance to remind Washington that America’s hold on the world order is weakening. For Putin, it is a diplomatic lifeline. And for Modi, it is a high-wire act – a balancing act between asserting India’s sovereignty and cutting new economic deals.

The substance may be fuzzy, but in geopolitics, sometimes the picture matters more than the text. And in Tianjin, Xi is preparing to deliver just that: a powerful picture of solidarity in a fractured world.