SCO Summit 2025: Optics, Alliances, and a Shifting World Order

As stories of global conflicts and war dominate international news cycles, one photograph has unexpectedly captured global attention. The now-viral image shows Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping, the three leaders appearing to share a light-hearted moment—perhaps even a laugh. The photograph was taken just ahead of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit 2025 at the Meijiang Convention and Exhibition Centre in Tianjin, China, on September 1.

This was not merely a snapshot from an international summit. Against the backdrop of U.S. tariffs and global conflicts, the image has become symbolic of shifting geopolitical friendships. Yet the question persists: does this mark a true change in loyalties and alignments, or is it simply a performance of optics designed to counter what many have called the Trump card?

The Summit in Tianjin

The SCO Summit, held from August 31 to September 1, marked the organisation’s 25th Heads of State Council meeting and its largest ever. For India, it carried particular weight: this was Modi’s first visit to China since 2018, and an anticipated meeting with President Xi Jinping. It came amid a marked improvement in bilateral ties, set against the backdrop of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff war. It was also the second meeting between Modi and Xi in less than a year, following their discussions at the BRICS summit in Kazan last October.

Another layer added to the symbolism of this visit. Trump’s decision to impose 50% tariffs on Indian goods—an attempt to punish New Delhi for continuing to purchase Russian oil—was intended to discourage India from strengthening ties with Moscow. Modi, however, seemed to send the opposite message in Tianjin: a clear signal of India’s willingness to boost, not scale back, its relationship with Russia.

The trifecta of India, China, and Russia—meeting under the shadow of Trump’s tariff war—has been widely read as signalling the evolution of a new world order. This was reinforced by China’s statements at the summit. Al Jazeera reported that China and Russia presented their joint vision of a new international system, with Beijing offering fresh financial incentives to countries aligned with the Beijing-led economic and security bloc.

“Global governance has reached a new crossroads,” Xi Jinping told the summit on Monday, in remarks widely seen as a critique of the United States. “We must continue to take a clear stand against hegemonism and power politics, and practise true multilateralism.”

His words were echoed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who declared that the SCO would revive “genuine multilateralism” and lay “the political and socioeconomic groundwork for the formation of a new system of stability and security in Eurasia.”

Experts argue the summit heralded the world’s entry into multipolarity. Manoj Kewalramani, chairperson of the Indo-Pacific Studies Programme at the Takshashila Institution in Bangalore, told Al Jazeera: “This is a time when the US is burning bridges with almost every country. So, in President Xi’s mind, it is a good time for China to position itself as a world power by showcasing it has productive relations with many countries. China always tries to make friends where it can.”

The Reaction to the Photo

If the policy signals were serious, the optics were playful yet powerful. The visuals of Modi, Xi, and Putin quickly took social media by storm. Many Indian influencers created memes using Bollywood songs to highlight the supposed shift in alliances, with India shown drawing closer to Russia and China while leaving the U.S. isolated.

NDTV reported that the images dominated headlines even in the U.S. press. The New York Times noted that India’s “risk-averse bureaucracy” would normally avoid such a conspicuous display of warmth with China and Russia, fearing repercussions in Washington. But, the report argued, Trump’s sweeping tariffs had left New Delhi with “little incentive” to pull itself back. The paper added that Modi’s social media posts with Xi and Putin revealed how India’s “juggling act has been upended.”

The New York Times described the photo of Modi, Xi, and Putin holding hands as a “smiling manifestation of a troika that Moscow had recently said it hoped to revive.” NBC News reported that Modi’s closeness with Xi and Putin could be seen as a “rebuke” to Trump. CNN, headlining its coverage ‘Xi and Modi talk friendship in a ‘chaotic’ world as Trump’s tariffs bite’, argued that the tariffs had threatened “years of efforts from U.S. diplomats to deepen ties with the country as a key counterweight to a rising and increasingly assertive China.” It added that the warmth between the three countries would be closely watched by the Trump administration. Associated Press was even more direct: Trump’s tariffs on India had pushed New Delhi closer to China and Russia.

What is the SCO?

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization began in 1996 as the “Shanghai Five,” a security bloc created by China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan with the aim of promoting cooperation and peace among its member states, as well as fostering “a new democratic, fair and rational international political and economic order. In 2001, the group expanded to become the SCO, including Uzbekistan, and established its headquarters in Beijing.

Over the years, membership widened: India and Pakistan joined in 2017, Iran in 2023, and Belarus in 2024. In addition, the organisation now has 14 dialogue partners, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkiye, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Cambodia. Together, SCO member states represent 43 percent of the world’s population and nearly a quarter of the global economy.

India was granted Observer Status in SCO in 2005 which was later elevated to full membership in 2017. 

What Does This Mean for the U.S.?

For Washington, the symbolism was sobering. “It was the United States and China together and Russia by itself. Now we’re on the bad end of the triangle. It’s everybody against us. That is not good for America,” U.S. political commentator Van Jones was quoted by various media outlets.

Jones warned: “We’re going to look back on today historically as a very big deal because that image of Xi Jinping with Putin, with Modi from India, with the leader of Iran, with the leader of North Korea—that should send a chill down the spine of every American.” Speaking to CNN, he described the gathering as a sign of a “new world order,” one in which the West finds itself increasingly boxed in by a multipolar landscape.

The Washington Post described this as the first major gathering of four nations analysts label an anti-American “axis of upheaval”—Iran, North Korea, China, and Russia.

NDTV, citing The New York Times, reported: “The tableau carried multiple messages. The bonhomie between Mr Xi and Mr Putin was meant to convey a close bond between them as leaders of an alternative world order challenging the United States. Mr Modi sought to show that India has other important friends—including China, regardless of an unresolved border dispute—if the Trump administration chooses to continue alienating New Delhi with tariffs.”

A ‘Reverse Nixon’ and India’s Strategic Recalibration

Analysts described the SCO summit as a kind of “Reverse Nixon.” In 1972, U.S. President Richard Nixon sought to prise Beijing away from Moscow, weakening the Soviet bloc. More than fifty years later, Trump attempted a similar manoeuvre in reverse—courting Moscow in hopes of pulling it away from Beijing and fracturing the China–Russia axis. Yet in Tianjin, it was clear that the strategy had backfired. Instead of drifting toward Washington, Putin tightened his embrace of both China and India. The sequence of meetings told the story: Trump met Putin in Alaska in mid-August, Beijing welcomed Modi shortly afterwards, and by early September Modi was smiling alongside Xi and Putin at the SCO summit—an image that symbolised Washington’s failure and handed Beijing and Moscow a public relations victory.

For India, this moment was less about siding with one bloc than about recalibrating its options in a turbulent landscape. Trump had even phoned Modi to propose jointly reshaping the world order—a move some saw as driven as much by his Nobel Peace Prize ambitions as by strategy—but his 50% tariffs and transactional approach eroded trust. Modi’s willingness to be photographed in visible camaraderie with Xi and Putin, and Putin’s later revelation of a private limousine conversation with the Indian leader, suggested that New Delhi was asserting its independence rather than bowing to U.S. pressure. Far from being a weak link, India’s careful positioning complicated Washington’s gambit and underscored its determination to pursue a multi-aligned path.

India’s Balancing Act

For India, this is a precarious moment. While the SCO provided a stage to reset relationships, it also exposed risks. As Palki Sharma of Firstpost observed: “Dialogue may be on the table, but the fault lines remain. India’s approach must be cautious, calculated and cannot be without conditions. India’s policy of multi-alignment faces its biggest test.”

Those fault lines are significant. India continues to grapple with an unresolved border dispute with China, Beijing’s shielding of Pakistan, and what many analysts describe as China’s broader encirclement strategy. Even as Modi sought to show solidarity with Xi and Putin, New Delhi cannot afford to overlook these strategic challenges.

The U.S.-India relationship, meanwhile, hangs in a delicate balance. Trump's top trade adviser, Peter Navarro, has described the show of unity between the leaders of India, Russia and China, as "troublesome", saying Prime Minister Narendra Modi needs to be with Washington, Europe and Ukraine, not with Russia. Trump’s advisers insisted the shift was not a pivot away from India, but a frank message to a partner.

Reuters remarked that “fixing the U.S.-India relationship may require more effort than it took to break it.” Brett Bruen, a former Obama foreign policy adviser, put it more bluntly: “India is a clear example of a country that for historical, political and economic reasons won’t simply bow down to Trump. They’ve got other options.”

China–Russia: Unity and Unease

For both China and Russia, the SCO is more than a regional forum; it is the diplomatic architecture through which they project solidarity and sketch an alternative vision of global governance. On the eve of Beijing’s massive Victory Day parade, Vladimir Putin described his relationship with Xi Jinping as at an “unprecedented level,” calling him a dear friend. Chinese state media declared ties “exemplary,” while the two leaders unveiled gestures of deepening cooperation—Russia pledging to expand gas supplies eastward as sanctions squeeze its European markets, and China offering visa-free entry for Russian citizens during a year-long trial. At the SCO, Xi spoke of resisting “Cold War thinking” and building a more “just and reasonable” world order, while Putin hailed the bloc for laying the groundwork to replace “outdated Eurocentric and Euro-Atlantic models.”

Yet beneath this choreography lies a relationship marked as much by pragmatism as by trust. Historical suspicion and geopolitical caution continue to shape the partnership. Beijing quietly worries about overreliance on a declining Russia, while Moscow resents the risk of becoming a junior partner to an ascendant China. Analysts warn that this power asymmetry—China as the economic engine, Russia as the sanctioned power in search of relevance—may yet destabilise a partnership founded less on ideals than on necessity.

Beyond the Optics

Despite the dominance of the viral imagery, the summit was not without substance. Reuters reported that China used the SCO gathering to strengthen its ties with Central Asia, pledging new cooperation in energy, green industry, and the digital economy. In his keynote speech, Xi announced plans to help SCO countries expand renewable energy capacity by 10 million kilowatts over the next five years, alongside the creation of three new platforms for cooperation.

Though the work of the SCO has been largely symbolic since its founding in 2001, Xi outlined grander ambitions for the bloc at the summit.

Xi called for the creation of a new SCO development bank, and announced 2 billion RMB ($280m) in grants plus another 10 billion RMB ($1.4bn) in loans for SCO members.

Analysts note that such initiatives are not only about deepening China’s influence in the region, but also about accelerating its ambition to erode the dominance of the U.S. dollar.

 In Essence

The SCO Summit 2025 delivered more than viral images. It was a theatre of shifting alliances, bold declarations of an alternative order, and a carefully staged tableau that resonated across capitals and screens. For the U.S., it was a warning. For India, a balancing act fraught with risks. For China and Russia, an opportunity. Whether it proves to be the start of a new order or simply an interlude, the SCO has shown that in today’s world, optics are not just theatre—they are part of the strategy.

Asia Media Centre