TIANJIN – The leaders of China, India and Russia sought to project unity on Sept 1 at a time when their countries are being hit by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs or, in Moscow’s case, sweeping Western sanctions.
That solidarity was most clearly seen in the Tianjin declaration of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit which condemned the Israeli and US strikes on Iran in June 2025 as well as terrorism in the form of the Pahalgam attack in India’s Jammu and Kashmir that killed 26 people in April 2025.
“Such unity in condemning Israel and the US had not been seen before, and it could be interpreted as a shift in India’s stance after being hit with tariffs by Washington,” said Mr Claus Soong, an analyst in the foreign relations team at German think-tank Merics. He added that the condemnation of the Pahalgam attack “gives India sufficient recognition to feel respected”.
New Delhi had broken ranks in June when it refused to sign the SCO joint statement because it did not reflect the country’s concerns on terrorism, particularly after it omitted the Pahalgam attack.
But equally noticeable is that India did not join the rest of the SCO member states in supporting China’s Belt and Road Initiative, a reminder of ongoing structural issues in China-India relations.
Earlier, in the most closely watched interaction at the summit, host Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi huddled together on the red carpet for a few minutes, smiling, chatting and gesturing before heading off for a group photo at the meeting venue.
Mr Modi had at one point also held Mr Putin’s hand as they walked up the red carpet.
The symbolic scene of the three leaders standing together, seemingly sharing a good rapport, offered optics of unity within the Eurasian bloc at a time when Mr Trump is reshaping alliances and waging a global tariff war.
Founded in 2001 as a security grouping of six Eurasian nations – China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan – the SCO has since expanded to include India, Pakistan, Iran and Belarus. It also counts two observer states and 14 dialogue partners.
Later in his 14-minute address at the SCO heads of state meeting, Mr Xi
called on more than 20 world leaders to “uphold fairness and justice”
while criticising “bullying” practices, as Beijing declared itself a defender of the post-war international order upended by Mr Trump’s America First policies.
Mr Xi projected China as a stabilising pillar for the world economy and, to put money where his mouth is, promised billions of yuan to support SCO countries.
He pledged 2 billion yuan (S$360 million) of free aid to SCO member states and a further 10 billion yuan of loans to member banks of the SCO banking consortium over three years, on top of other initiatives such as doubling of SCO-specific scholarships and other training opportunities.
China is facing a protracted trade war with the US, while Russia is fending off Western pressure to end the war in Ukraine, and India is grappling with a steep
50 per cent tariff imposed by the US
just days earlier.
In his speech, Mr Xi also criticised the US multiple times, vowing to oppose “hegemonism” and the “Cold War mentality”.
Mr Xi added that SCO countries should seek common ground while putting aside differences, and “make the pie of cooperation bigger”, in a reiteration of what was his overarching message in a flurry of bilateral meetings with heads of state over the last two days. “We should leverage the strength of our mega-sized markets and economic complementarity between member states and improve trade and investment facilitation,” he said.
He also promised to implement “100 small and beautiful livelihood projects” in member states. No official explanation was given for the phrasing, though some observers note the irony of the contrast to Mr Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” passed in July and steeped in America First overtones.
China’s cumulative trade with other SCO countries has surpassed the US$2.3 trillion (S$3 trillion) goal, hitting it ahead of schedule, noted Mr Xi.
In a separate address at a meeting with SCO members and dialogue partners, Mr Xi proposed a “Global Governance Initiative” (GGI), urging countries to uphold all countries’ national sovereignty, international law and multilateralism. He did not elaborate how the GGI squares with Russia’s war on Ukraine, or China’s dismissal of the ruling of an arbitral tribunal in 2016 in favour of the Philippines in the two countries’ dispute in the South China Sea.
The GGI follows Mr Xi’s earlier Global Development, Global Security and Global Civilisation initiatives, underscoring his bid to position China as the architect of alternatives to Western-led institutions. Among the GGI’s key priorities is respecting international law and practising multilateralism.
Professor Cui Hongjian from the Academy of Regional and Global Governance at Beijing Foreign Studies University told The Straits Times that it is hard to immediately see the impact of the SCO summit on other countries.
“From the outside world, there’s a perception that the SCO talks a lot but does little. This time, China has proposed many specific measures, but to what extent these measures can translate into actions for all the member countries, we’ll still need to observe,” said Prof Cui.
Mr Putin, in his speech, said that the SCO laid the groundwork for a “new system” of security in Eurasia, positioning it as an alternative to Western-led alliances that he has long railed against, according to Russian news agency Tass.
Mr Modi, in China for the first time in seven years, posted photos on social media platform X of him
greeting and hugging Mr Putin
. After the meeting ended, Mr Modi again posted a photo of him and Mr Putin travelling in the same car to their bilateral meeting venue.
The SCO summit comes
ahead of a Sept 3 grand military parade
to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, with many leaders expected to stay on to attend.
The leaders decided at this summit to admit Laos as a dialogue partner and confirmed that Kyrgyzstan will assume the rotating chairmanship after China.
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Additional reporting by Debarshi Dasgupta
