China has opened the 25th Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Tianjin, bringing together leaders from across Eurasia, including Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The two-day meeting runs from Sunday 31 August to Monday 1 September and is billed by Beijing as an opportunity to advance regional security and economic coordination under the “Shanghai Spirit”.
Russian President Putin arrived in Tianjin on Sunday for the summit and related events in China. State and international outlets reported that several visiting leaders are expected to travel to Beijing during the week for commemorations marking the 80th anniversary of Japan’s Second World War surrender.
Ahead of the formal sessions, President Xi Jinping held talks with Mr Modi. It is the Indian leader’s first visit to China in seven years, and the meeting is being watched for signs of a stabilisation in ties after the 2020 border clashes. Reports from Tianjin said the two leaders emphasised the value of managing differences and resuming practical cooperation, alongside discussion of trade facilitation and connectivity.
This year’s summit convenes as trade tensions between Washington and New Delhi have intensified. On 27 August, President Donald Trump imposed a 50% tariff on most US imports from India, citing India’s continued purchases of discounted Russian oil. Reuters and other outlets reported that the move risks damaging bilateral economic relations and complicating supply chains.
Indian financial media and market analysts have framed Tianjin as a forum where India, China and Russia may underscore alternative economic arrangements, including a greater use of local-currency settlement. Commentaries ahead of the meeting suggested that, while such steps could provide a hedge against US pressure over time, the near-term market impact from higher tariffs is likely to be volatility and a higher risk premium on Indian assets.
For Moscow, the SCO gathering offers sustained leader-level engagement outside Euro-Atlantic structures as the war in Ukraine continues. In public messaging on arrival, Mr Putin linked the summit’s agenda to calls for a “fairer multipolar world order”, a theme that has recurred in Russian and Chinese diplomacy.
China, which holds the rotating SCO chair, has presented the Tianjin sessions as the largest in the organisation’s history, with more than twenty national leaders and representatives of international and regional bodies expected. The agenda spans counter-terrorism, transport corridors, energy links and digital infrastructure, together with discussion of payments and settlement mechanisms between member states. While specific outcomes will depend on leaders’ conclusions, officials have trailed memoranda on connectivity and trade facilitation.
The bilateral between Mr Xi and Mr Modi is central to the meeting’s optics. India is a founding SCO member that also engages in groupings with Western partners; its approach in Tianjin balances energy security, exposure to US trade measures and the management of a complex relationship with China. Any incremental steps on border confidence-building, aviation links or easing non-tariff barriers would indicate a controlled attempt to normalise, although neither side has announced concrete measures beyond general statements of intent.
The tariff backdrop has implications within India as well as for external partners. Analysts quoted in Indian business coverage argued that a 50% levy could weigh on labour-intensive exports and pressure the current account, even as domestic institutional investors and fiscal measures provide a limited buffer. They also noted that energy-linked sectors could prove more resilient if local-currency trade expands with Russia and China. These are, however, market views rather than official positions.
For the SCO collectively, the breadth of membership and partners provides profile, but also constrains consensus. The final communiqué will be scrutinised for language on security and economic coordination, and for any reference to contested theatres or to “non-interference”. Attention will also focus on participation in mid-week commemorations in Beijing, which are expected to include several summit attendees.
In sum, Tianjin offers visibility and agenda-setting for a bloc that spans Central, South and West Asia. The immediate tests lie in whether leaders can translate rhetoric on alternative trade and payments into practical arrangements and whether the Xi–Modi engagement produces even limited, verifiable steps on the boundary and commerce.
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