It is a summit designed to challenge the West’s historical dominance of the world –hosting the likes of Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping.
On Sunday, China hosted the annual Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Tianjin, a grand meeting of the leaders of 26 nations, many of them opposed to the US and Europe.
Putin and Chinese president Xi, who are closely allied under what they have termed a ‘limitless’ partnership, also held side talks to discuss the Russian leader’s recent meeting with Donald Trump, a Kremlin official said.
Xi personally welcomed several leaders, including Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus, before the delegates attended a formal reception.
Xi said China-India ties could be ‘stable and far-reaching’ if both sides focused on viewing each other as partners. ‘China and India are cooperation partners, not rivals,’ he said.
Russia’s claims over Ukraine after its invasion in 2022, as well as China’s over Taiwan and fears it will invade, have isolated both countries from Western and other democracies.
The SCO is a ten-member bloc of Eurasian nations, which includes Iran, India and Pakistan. The summit is also being attended by the leaders of 16 observer or ‘dialogue partner’ nations.
Like Xi and Putin, all of them have been accused of restricting free speech and political representation in their countries.
Xi told the reception that, in the past century, there had been a ‘significant increase in instability, uncertainty and unpredictable factors’ and the SCO had become an ‘important force in promoting the building of a new type of international relations and a community with a shared future for mankind’.
Putin and several other attendees are expected to stay on for a military parade in Beijing on Wednesday to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, which China refers to as the war of resistance against Japanese aggression.
North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un is also expected to attend the military parade.
It is the largest summit to be held by the bloc since it was formed in 2001.
The SCO is a key part of Beijing’s push for stronger multilateral alternatives to Western or US-led blocs such as Nato.
This goal appears to have been helped by the upheaval brought by the US President’s global tariff regime.
The meeting took place five days after Washington imposed 50 per cent levies on Indian goods because of Delhi’s purchases of Russian oil.
It is Mr Modi’s first visit to China in seven years and comes after a period of simmering tensions over long-running Himalayan border disputes.
But the world’s most populous nations on Sunday pointed to a new era of co-operation, pledging to resume suspended flights at an unspecified date.
‘We are committed to progressing our relations based on mutual respect, trust and sensitivities,’ Modi said after meeting Xi.
He added: ‘The interests of 2.8billion people of both countries are linked to our cooperation. This will also pave the way for the welfare of the entire humanity.’ Footage shown by Russian state media showed Xi and Putin warmly greeting each other before calling in an interpreter for a lengthy and animated conversation.
Lim Chuan-Tiong, a researcher with the Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia at the University of Tokyo, said: ‘As long as the mutual opponent [US] has not been defeated, China and Russia’s off-limits cooperation will remain.
‘Their cooperation also serves to highlight a global order that exists beyond the United States.’
