Modi-Putin-Xi trioka takes center stage as SCO opens amid U.S. tariff storm

Xi will seek to cast China as a stabilising force, Putin as unbowed by isolation, and PM Modi as a leader balancing U.S. defiance with careful outreach to Beijing.

World leaders are gathering in the northern Chinese port city of Tianjin for what Beijing is calling the most significant Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in the bloc’s 24-year history.

Chinese President Xi Jinping will host Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and more than 20 other leaders for two days of talks beginning Sunday, a show of strengthening non-Western partnerships amid escalating U.S. tariffs and sanctions.

For PM Modi, it is his first visit to China since 2018, coming directly after securing a $68 billion Japanese investment pledge in Tokyo. Notably, his presence signals a tentative thaw in India-China relations, strained since the 2020 Galwan Valley clashes but cautiously improving after his meeting with Xi in Russia last year. It also underscores New Delhi’s intent to push back against Washington’s new 50 percent levies on Indian exports and pressure to end purchases of Russian oil.

Meanwhile, Putin, who arrived in Tianjin on Sunday morning, will use the summit to highlight Moscow’s pivot east as Western sanctions intensify. The Kremlin has confirmed that he will hold separate talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Ukraine and with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Tehran’s nuclear programme, both sensitive issues likely to shape discussions in Tianjin.

China, Russia, and India, each targeted in different ways by U.S. economic measures, are presenting the SCO as a platform for a “multipolar world order” that dilutes American dominance.

The bloc’s reach reflects that ambition.

Its 10 members -- China, India, Russia, Pakistan, Iran, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan -- account for about 40 percent of the world’s population and vast energy reserves. Sixteen partner and observer nations, from Saudi Arabia and Egypt to NATO member Turkey, are also attending.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has already met Xi, urging reforms to the global financial system.

Still, expectations for breakthroughs remain modest.

India and Pakistan will share a stage for the first time since the Pahalgam terror attack and the Indian armed forces' military operation Operation Sindoor. Analysts are seeing the summit to be more about symbolism than substantive agreements -- a platform to showcase alternative power centres at a time when President Donald Trump’s tariff war is roiling economies across Asia and beyond.

The optics, however, are critical.

Xi will seek to cast China as a stabilising force, Putin as unbowed by isolation, and PM Modi as a leader balancing U.S. defiance with careful outreach to Beijing.

The SCO summit concludes Monday, after which many leaders are expected to travel to Beijing for a military parade marking 80 years since the end of World War II, another reminder of how China is using spectacle to reinforce its claim as a central player in global affairs.