The two day SCO summit in tianjen hasn’t produced any tangible results, but gave great visuals for newspapers though. Modi and Xi, Modi and Putin, Modi Xi and Putin all made great frames, but there were no bytes to add.
SCO is primarily about the central Asian states and their energy economy. The central path for China’s belt and road initiative, they have to be protected against American influence.
India, Pakistan and Iran being neighboring states were initially observers, who were later inducted as members. So SCO was never about us, but the backdrop of Trump tariffs and Russian oil made it so.
4 months after the pahalgam attack, SCO condemned it and the irony is Pakistan was a joint signatory. That It was not named, is obvious. A month ago our military chief had declared that we fought the combined forces of china and Pakistan, in operation sindoor and today we were crafting friendship with no mention of it.
Much of the world is stung by President Trump, and are searching for multilateral forums, but each of them is forging deals with him simultaneously. This makes our partner hunting redundant.
China has too many strategic overlaps with us, for any serious alliance in near future. Our trade deficit with them is already too high, for us to afford any further concession.
Pakistan is the invisible partner in any deal we attempt with china. Any concession there would be devastating for modi’s domestic politics.
Putin had all the laughs. His war is funded by his oil, 80% of which is bought between, India and China. They are more dependent on his oil than before. How are security apparatus reacts need to be seen. Some businesses are definitely happy.
