BEIJING: President Xi Jinping will host global leaders including Russia’s Vladimir Putin and India’s Narendra Modi for a major regional summit this weekend.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation gathering represents China’s effort to showcase non-Western collaboration models ahead of a significant military parade.
Twenty world leaders will attend the bloc’s largest meeting since its 2001 founding, including Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Analyst Lizzi Lee from the Asia Society Policy Institute noted that hosting numerous leaders allows Beijing to “demonstrate convening power”.
She added that substantial outcomes remain unlikely since “the SCO runs by consensus, and when you have countries deeply divided on core issues like India and Pakistan, or China and India, in the same room, that naturally limits ambition”.
Assistant Foreign Minister Liu Bin stated that the summit will bring stability against “hegemonism and power politics”, indirectly referencing the United States.
Putin’s participation comes amid Ukraine’s insistence that direct talks represent “the most effective way forward” despite Moscow rejecting immediate negotiations.
Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University assistant professor Dylan Loh observed that Putin will likely demonstrate Russia’s continued non-Western support to promote his war narratives.
Lee noted that while Ukraine will “hang over the proceedings”, the topic won’t be “front and centre” since “the SCO avoids topics that divide members”.
Modi’s visit marks his first China trip since 2018, following a deadly 2020 border clash between the world’s two most populous nations.
Japan’s Soka University professor Lim Tai Wei stated that “China will try its very best to pull out all stops to woo India, particularly capitalising on India’s trade issues with the US”.
He cautioned that “fundamental differences between the countries cannot be resolved easily” though “temporary respite or temperature-cooling may be possible”.
Modi’s potential attendance at China’s military parade would serve as “a barometer of where the geopolitical wind blows in the global contestation between the West and China”.
Both nations recently announced resumed direct flights, advanced border talks, and enhanced trade cooperation amid global geopolitical turbulence. – AFP
