US media blames Trump for 'show of unity' at SCO summit

WASHINGTON — Photos and videos from the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Tianjin, showing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's camaraderie with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping, have gone viral worldwide, including in the United States.

The US media framed the display as a deliberate show of unity against American dominance, driven largely by US President Donald Trump's aggressive trade policies.

Prime Minister Modi and President Putin walked to Chinese President Xi and the three leaders shook hands and shared a conversation marked by smiles and laughter.

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Major outlets like 'The New York Times' called it a "smiling manifestation of a troika" projecting an alternative to US global leadership, noting how PM Modi's last-minute ride in Putin's limousine highlighted the warmth.

The CNN emphasised the summit’s heavy focus on optics, with Xi rolling out the red carpet for PM Modi and Putin, while portraying the SCO as a counterweight to a US-led world order.

Fox News described Modi's meetings as a "clear rebuke" to Washington, following Trump’s 50 per cent tariffs on Indian goods over its purchase of Russian oil, tariffs he defended as a national security move tied to the Ukraine war.

Jeremy Chan of the Eurasia Group on CNBC said Trump’s tariffs had "breathed new life" into the summit, giving China room to court the Global South and pushing India away from the US.

The Washington Post also criticised Trump in an editorial titled 'Trump's white-knuckling with India could backfire'. The newspaper asserted that tensions with India "don’t supersede shared interest in countering Beijing".

The Wall Street Journal spotlighted that the "display of unity" was aimed in part at President Trump – and that "underscores the challenges faced by his unorthodox approach to world affairs".