Behind the smiles with Putin, Modi and Xi at China summit
TIANJIN, China – September 01: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on September 1, 2025, Tianjin, Meijiang Convention in China and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit in China before 2025 Russian President Vladimir Putin (L), and China President Xi Jinping. (Photo: Suo TAKKUMA – POL/getty Images)
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Sometimes a photograph describes the story better than any communiqué or summit declaration.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s laughed together in Tianjin has already become viral.
It seems like an easy change between the three leaders on the surface. However, analysts say that rival competition and changing power dynamics reflect a sensitive mixture.
India’s former China’s former Ambassador Gautam Bambawale said in CNBC’s India: “Dragon and elephant do not dance yet. Only they look at each other from the other sides of a room and are trying to evaluate the results of the relationship between the two?”
Obstacles are open. The border dispute between India and China has not been solved since the 2020 clashes. Beijing’s close partnership with Pakistan – beyond economic corridors, restricts how much ties can develop – extending to military equipment and intelligence cooperation.
This week’s Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit gave funds to the photo. SCO is expanding as size and ambition, but as Jeremy Chan in the Eurasian Group points out, it does not mean more relevance.
“Although SCO is often described as a security organization, it does not really focus on military issues, and its recent global conflicts, whether Ukraine or in Gaza, SCO was not essentially.”
The timing of the meeting is also remarkable. US President Donald Trump raised tariffs and disturbs global markets, using Beijing to emphasize his access to the Global South. Chan told Trump that he was “breathing a new life” to the summit and gave China the chance to fill his diplomacy more reliably than Washington.
On Monday, Trump was sent in SocialHe said that India offers to reduce its tariffs to zero for US goods. Describing the relationship with India unilaterally, Trump said that the US is the largest customer in India.
“The reason is that India has not been able to sell us the most high tariffs of any country to India. In addition, most of India’s oil and military products buy very little from Russia, but they had to do very little tariffs from the United States, but they had to do it for certain years ago.”
Meanwhile, photo-op also made an investigation in the US media. New York Times He described the interaction as a Troika’s smiling manifestation, which Moscow has recently said that he hopes to revive ,, even sharing the optics of the proximity between modi and Putin to a meeting on the edges. The report claims that India’s traditionally cautious bureaucracy may have once avoided such open demonstrations with China and Russia, but Trump’s comprehensive tariffs left the new Delhi with “less encouragement”.
Multi -polarity, defined differently
Risks are important for investors. At the center of energy and trade flows, SCO brings together economies representing almost half of the world’s population. Tariffs that threaten supply chains and markets are closely monitored for new alignment signals, even if the concrete peaks are limited.
It carries optical weight for India. Modi’s interviews with XI reminded Washington to deepen his relations with India and his allies, while he was willing to establish dialogue with Beijing and Moscow. However, the new Delhi’s decision to skip the SCO military parade, underlined any limit of dissolution.
“India uses it to indirectly send an indirect signal to Washington, not only in Beijing, but also in Moscow.” He said. Modi’s rapid output from the summit, immediately after Tokyo arrived, he underlined India’s ongoing participation with US partners in Asia.
In the heart of the summit, there was a discussion on “very polarity”, Chan added that the definition of very polarity is different for India and China.
Beijing describes this as a system in which the US dominance is reduced, and China allows more scope to claim itself as the leading power of Asia. On the other hand, India sees that multiple polarity is more equally spread to many countries, not a single state is under control, but the Chan CNBC’s India.
Meanwhile, for Russia, SCO continues to be one of the few international platforms that Putin is not in defense, underlining Moscow’s permanent relations with the effective Asian partners despite Western sanctions.
The photo captures all this in a single frame. Smiles recommend adaptation, but the truth is much more complex.
