Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to travel to China next week to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Tianjin, his first visit to the country in more than seven years. The meeting, hosted by President Xi Jinping, is expected to project Global South solidarity, give sanctions-hit Russia another diplomatic platform, and underline Beijing’s growing clout.

Secretary (West) in the ministry of external affairs Tanmay Lal confirmed that on Tuesday that Modi will visit Tianjin, China, to participate in the SCO Summit at Xi Jinping‘s invitation.

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The Prime Minister is expected to hold some bilateral meetings during the Summit’s sidelines, the official said.

Addressing a special press briefing ahead of PM Modi’s visits to Japan and China, the MEA official said, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Tianjin for the 25th meeting on August 31 and September 1.”

Alongside Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and leaders from Central Asia, South Asia, the Middle East and Southeast Asia will participate. PM Narendra Modi last shared the stage with Xi and Putin at the BRICS summit in Russia last year.

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Russian officials in New Delhi recently said they hope for trilateral talks between India, China and Russia on the sidelines.

What does it mean for India?

For India, the SCO summit is significant as New Delhi looks to sustain a thaw in ties with Beijing after the 2020 border clashes. According to news agency Reuters, analysts expect incremental confidence-building measures, including troop pullbacks, easing of trade barriers, and new cooperation areas.

“It’s likely India will put recent SCO disputes behind and focus on sustaining the détente with China, which is a key Modi priority,” Reuters quoted Eric Olander, editor-in-chief of The China-Global South Project, as saying.

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“Xi will want to use the summit as an opportunity to showcase what a post-American-led international order begins to look like and that all White House efforts since January to counter China, Iran, Russia, and now India have not had the intended effect,” added Eric Olander.

“Just look at how much BRICS has rattled (US President) Donald Trump, which is precisely what these groups are designed to do,” he added.

This year’s summit will be the largest since the SCO was founded in 2001, a Chinese foreign ministry official said last week, calling the bloc an “important force in building a new type of international relations”.

The recent detente between India and China after five years of heightened border frictions, as well as renewed tariff pressure on New Delhi from the Trump administration, are driving expectations for a positive meeting between Xi and Modi on the sidelines of the summit.

Modi is expected to depart from China after the summit, while Putin will stay on for a World War Two military parade in Beijing later in the week for an unusually long spell outside of Russia.

Primary goals of the SCO

Highlighting the primary goals of the SCO, namely countering the three evils of terrorism, separatism and extremism, Lal underlined that there is a broader range of sectors of cooperation among the SCO members.

The SCO comprises 10 members. In addition to India, they include Belarus, China, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. There are a number of dialogue partners and observers as well. India has been a member of the SCO since 2017, while earlier it was an observer since 2005. During the period of its membership, India has held the chair of the SCO Council of Heads of Government in 2020 and of the SCO Council of Heads of State during 2022-2023.

Xi says China, Russia ties ‘most stable’ in turbulent world

China, meanwhile, has doubled down on its partnership with Russia. Xi Jinping said on Tuesday that China’s ties with Russia are the “most stable, mature and strategically significant” among major world powers, Reuters reported, citing Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.

During a meeting with Vyacheslav Volodin, chairman of Russia’s Duma, or lower house of parliament, Xi hailed the countries’ relationship as being a “stable source of world peace”, CCTV reported.

“The two sides should… work together to safeguard the security and development interests of both countries, unite the Global South, uphold true multilateralism, and promote the international order towards greater fairness and justice,” Xi told Volodin in Beijing’s opulent Great Hall of the People.

Former socialist allies with a history of tempestuous ties, relations between Beijing and Moscow have deepened since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

China has never denounced the war nor called for Moscow to withdraw its troops, and many of Ukraine’s allies believe that Beijing has provided support to its vast northern neighbour.

(With inputs from Reuters)