SCO Summit 2025: Modi’s Presence as China Pushes New Order

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China hosts largest-ever SCO summit in Tianjin; Modi’s attendance signals strategic recalibration amid Sino-Pakistan axis and global power shifts

By TRH Global Affairs Desk

NEW DELHI, August 27, 2025 — When Prime Minister Narendra Modi lands in Tianjin this weekend for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit, it will mark a sharp turn in India’s China policy. After years of signalling that the SCO was slipping down its priority list, Modi has chosen to appear in person at the largest SCO gathering in history — hosted by Xi Jinping and attended by leaders from over 20 states and 10 international organizations.

But the real geopolitical drama may lie in the corridors: for the first time, Modi will come face-to-face with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif since the two nations clashed militarily earlier this year. Beijing’s invisible hand during that war — providing Islamabad with real-time intelligence and satellite feeds — still casts a shadow over India’s strategic calculations.

China’s foreign ministry has billed the Tianjin summit, running from August 31 to September 1, as a historic platform to chart the SCO’s trajectory till 2035. Leaders are expected to sign a joint declaration and adopt documents on security, energy, and economic cooperation.

Moscow, Tehran, and Central Asian capitals are keen on pushing Xi’s idea of an “Energy Club,” underscoring the SCO’s bid to function as an alternative bloc to Western-led institutions.

As analyst Eric Olander told Reuters: “Xi Jinping will want to use the summit to show what an international order led by America’s rivals is beginning to look like — and that Washington’s counter-efforts against China, Russia, Iran, and now India, have not had the expected effect.”

Yet, Modi’s presence cannot be divorced from the larger arc of India-China tensions. “Just weeks ago, Beijing confirmed construction of the world’s largest dam a few miles from the Indian border, while the May conflict underscored the depth of Sino-Pakistan coordination,” wrote geopolitics analyst Brahma Chellaney on X.

Modi’s decision to precede his China trip with a visit to Japan — a Quad partner — signals New Delhi’s balancing act between Western alignments and Eurasian engagements, he added.

Observers recall the 2017 SCO summit moment when Putin lightened an awkward delay by calling Xi a “Lone Warrior.” Eight years later, Tianjin may well reveal whether China has moved beyond that image to become the nucleus of a parallel world order — or whether deep rivalries within the SCO will check Beijing’s ambitions.

For India, the question is simpler but sharper: Can Modi leverage Tianjin to shape the SCO into a platform for economic bridges, or will the optics of sharing a stage with Sharif amid China’s shadow undercut New Delhi’s strategic narrative?

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