\u2018Powerful optics\u2019
\nLeaders from several countries invited to SCO summit to be held in Tianjin from Aug 31 to Sept 1
\n BEIJING
\nPresident Xi Jinping will gather more than 20 world leaders at a regional security forum in China next week in a powerful show of Global South solidarity in the age of Donald Trump while also helping sanctions-hit Russia pull off another a diplomatic coup.
\nAside from Russian President Vladimir Putin, leaders from Central Asia, the Middle East, South Asia and Southeast Asia have been invited to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, to be held in the northern port city of Tianjin from August 31 to September 1.
\nThe summit will feature Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s first visit to China in more than seven years as the two neighbours work on further defusing tensions roiled by deadly border clashes in 2020.
\nModi last shared the same stage with Xi and Putin at last year\u2019s BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, even as Western leaders turned their backs on the Russian leader amid the war in Ukraine. Russian embassy officials in New Delhi last week said Moscow hopes trilateral talks with China and India will take place soon.
\n\u201cXi 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,\u201d said Eric Olander, editor-in-chief of The China-Global South Project, a research agency.
\n\u201cJust look at how much BRICS has rattled (US President) Donald Trump, which is precisely what these groups are designed to do.\u201d
\nThis year\u2019s summit will be the largest since the SCO was founded in 2001, a Chinese foreign ministry official said last week, calling the bloc an \u201cimportant force in building a new type of international relations\u201d.
\nThe security-focused bloc, which began as a group of six Eurasian nations, has expanded to 10 permanent members and 16 dialogue and observer countries in recent years. Its remit has also enlarged from security and counter-terrorism to economic and military cooperation.
\n\u2018Fuzzy\u2019 implementation
\nAnalysts say expansion is high on the agenda for many countries attending, but agree the bloc has not delivered substantial cooperation outcomes over the years and that China values the optics of Global South solidarity against the United States at a time of erratic policymaking and geopolitical flux.
\n\u201cWhat is the precise vision that the SCO represents and its practical implementation are rather fuzzy. It is a platform that has increasing convening power, which helps in narrative projection,\u201d said Manoj Kewalramani, chairperson of the Indo-Pacific Research Programme at the Takshashila Institution thinktank in Bangalore.
\n\u201cBut the SCO\u2019s effectiveness in addressing substantial security issues remains very limited.\u201d
\nFrictions remain between core members Pakistan and India. The June SCO defence ministers\u2019 meeting was unable to adopt a joint statement after India raised objections, saying it omitted reference to the deadly April 22 attack on Hindu tourists in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) which led to the worst fighting in decades between Pakistan and India.
\nNew Delhi also refused to join the SCO\u2019s condemnation of Israeli attacks on Iran, a member state, earlier in June.
\nBut 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.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s likely (New Delhi) will swallow their pride and put this year\u2019s SCO problems behind them in a bid to maintain momentum in the d\u00e9tente with China, which is a key Modi priority right now,\u201d said Olander.
\nAnalysts expect both sides to announce further incremental border measures such as troop withdrawals, the easing of trade and visa restrictions, cooperation in new fields including climate, and broader government and people-to-people engagement.
\nDespite the lack of substantive policy announcements expected at the summit, experts warn that the bloc\u2019s appeal to Global South countries should not be underestimated.
\n\u201cThis summit is about optics, really powerful optics,\u201d added Olander.
\nModi 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u2018Powerful optics\u2019 Leaders from several countries invited to SCO summit to be held in Tianjin from Aug 31 to Sept 1 BEIJING President Xi Jinping will gather more than 20 world leaders at a regional security forum in China next week in a powerful show of Global South solidarity in the age of Donald Trump […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":499278,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-499255","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n