Relevance of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Tianjin Summit Amid Global Uncertainty

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is a permanent inter-governmental international organisation established on June 15, 2001 as a consequence of China’s avid interests in Eurasia along with five other former Soviet Union states -- Kazakhstan, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Currently, SCO has 10 members with the recent inclusion of Belarus, India, Iran and Pakistan; two observer states and 14 dialogue partners. Internally, the core essence of SCO adheres to the “Shanghai Spirit”, namely, mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultation, respect for diversity of civilisations and pursuit of economic development; and externally, it upholds non-alignment, non-targeting at other countries or regions and the principle of openness.

Key Agenda of Tianjin Summit

The recently concluded Tianjin Summit reasserted SCO’s commitment to cooperation for mutual benefit and emphasised the importance of multilateralism to tackle unprecedented global adversities. Evidently, the 25th edition of the Summit of the leaders of SCO has garnered much global attention with the central tone of the summit focused on the role of SCO to shape a “fairer multipolar world order”. Underpinning SCO’s capacity to respond to contemporary threats and menaces and integrate unanimity across the Eurasian space. Other key agenda included manoeuvring security concerns more constructively and heightening financial apparatus as the member-states seek to bolster unity and justly represent the Global South through democratic multilateral mechanisms.

Favourable Outcomes for India

Along the sidelines of the Tianjin Summit, India-China bilateral talks on border issues are significant as both leaders welcomed the positive momentum and steady progress in bilateral relations since their last meeting in Kazan in October 2024. As Modi visits China after a long hiatus since 2018, the meeting is particularly notable amid ongoing Indo-US tensions over Trump’s arbitrary tariff impositions. India’s Foreign Minister Jaishankar and his counterpart Wang Yi both reaffirmed to expand cooperation amid “overwhelming bullying” and severe challenges to global free trade.

Jaishankar stated that, “differences must not become disputes, nor competition conflict” as both neighbours endeavour improved relations. Attempts to reset strained lines are to a large extent determined by potential economic gains. Modi and Xi agreed upon four suggestions to upgrade bilateral relations- strengthen strategic communication and deepen mutual trust; to expand exchanges and cooperation; to achieve mutual benefit and win-win results, to accommodate each other's concerns and to strengthen multilateral cooperation to safeguard common interests. India and China also agreed on the importance of maintaining peace on the borders and avoiding overall disturbances to better focus on their domestic development goals where both are partners. A major outcome of the Modi-Xi meeting is to resume direct flights between India and China for the first time since the pandemic.

However, the thawing of relations between the two countries cannot immediately be considered as complete normalisation of relations due to the sensitive relationship between Beijing and New Delhi. Their relationship has a recurring pattern of cooperation and fall-out. Besides unresolved border disputes, a major area of contention in Sino-India relations continues to be that of deepening China-Pakistan strategic nexus a tiny fraction of which is China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) that runs through Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (Pok) violating New Delhi’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.

India-Russia bilateral meeting also proved constructive, where both parties reiterated on re-strengthening trade and defence cooperation. This summit proved to be a timely opportunity for India to gather support in building a narrative that unity of the Global South is of immense importance to prevent bullying by the Global North. It also fostered economic and strategic cooperation with other SCO partners to diversify India’s market and also invite investments. As such, some noteworthy meetings were talks to deepen India-Vietnam ties in defence, trade, green energy and more; talks with Myanmar to boost ties in trade, connectivity, energy, rare earth mining and security as Myanmar is a crucial factor of India’s Act East and Neighbourhood First Policy; talks with Kazakhstan to improve cooperation in energy, security, healthcare and pharma. 

Another substantial win for India in the Tianjin Summit was the platform to address and strongly condemn cross-border terrorism sending out a strong message against terrorism. Modi pointed out that all nations must unite against double standards in terrorism referring to the recent Pahalgam attack. India’s concerns were validated in a SCO declaration condemning the terrorist attack in Pahalgam on 22 April 2025, with the member-states reaffirming their commitment to fight against terrorism, separatism and extremism.

The vast disparity between the Global North and Global South continues to pertain, however the narrative of the West and Europe being indisputable world powers is gradually waning, for instance the United States has blatantly announced not wanting to take global responsibility, withdrawing from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and also withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement two times in a row under the Trump administration, highlighting lack of credibility of the former superpower in bridging contemporary global issues.

Similarly, Europe’s inability to deal with war, a flagging economy, crisis of migration, health, climate and surging populist nationalism with the rise of right-wing parties reflect shifting power dynamics. In the event of rising instability, the emergence of multilateral institutions like the SCO has much potential to provide an alternative non-western-led power bloc that promotes an inclusive international system that is not monopolised by biased Western principles.

Collectively, the SCO represents approximately 42 percent of the world population and accounts for about 24 percent of the world’s GDP, and it dominates over 20 percent of the world’s oil and almost 44 percent of the world’s gas reserves. The massive size and reach of SCO over key strategically economic areas reflect the relevance of the multilateral organisation.

Dr. Ngipwem Rebecca Chohwanglim

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