The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) security forum now bears “greater responsibility” for safeguarding regional peace and stability, as well as promoting the development and prosperity of its member states, Chinese President Xi Jinping told about 20 world leaders he hosted on Sunday evening.
World leaders from Central, South and Southeast Asia and the Middle East are attending the summit in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin in a show of Global South solidarity.
The ongoing SCO summit shoulders the important mission of building consensus among all parties and stimulating momentum in cooperation, Xi was cited as telling a welcome banquet, Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported.
According to the Chinese news agency, Xi expressed confidence that with the concerted efforts of all parties, the summit will be a complete success and the SCO is certain to play an even bigger role and achieve more progress, making a greater contribution to boosting unity and cooperation among member states.
“The Tianjin summit is the largest-ever annual summit of the group. Member states are expected to adopt key documents, including the organisation’s development strategy for the next decade,” Xinhua reported.
“Xi told the guests at the banquet that as an open and inclusive city, Tianjin serves as a pioneering zone for China’s reform and opening-up, and hosting the summit here will undoubtedly inject new vitality into the sustainable development of the SCO.”
The Chinese president was also quoted as saying that the SCO has “become an important force in building a new type of international relations and a community with a shared future for humanity”.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation security forum now bears “greater responsibility” for safeguarding regional peace and stability, as well as promoting the development and prosperity of its member states, Chinese President Xi Jinping told about 20 world leaders he hosted on Sunday evening.
The ongoing SCO Summit shoulders the important mission of building consensus among all parties and stimulating momentum in cooperation, Xi was cited as telling a welcome banquet, Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported.
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The two-day summit is being held in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin.
China and Russia
Russian President Vladimir Putin also arrived in the northern Chinese port city of Tianjin on Sunday, Chinese and Russian state media reported, for a regional security summit that China hopes can counter Western influence in global affairs.
For the rare four-day visit to Russia’s neighbour and largest trading partner, Putin arrived to a red carpet welcome, received on the tarmac by top-ranking city officials, a livestream of the event by Russia’s TASS showed.
Ties between China and Russia are at their “best in history”, having become the “most stable, mature and strategically significant among major countries”, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said in its report of the arrival.
Read More: Modi tells Xi India seeks stronger ties with China
President Xi Jinping will host about 20 world leaders in Tianjin, also including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at the two-day summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, the largest gathering since the group was established in 2001 among six Eurasian nations.
The security-focused bloc has expanded to 10 permanent members and 16 dialogue and observer countries in recent years. Its remit has enlarged from security and counter-terrorism to economic and military cooperation.
China’s President Xi Jinping addresses a press conference in Brasilia, Brazil November 20, 2024. — Reuters
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation security forum now bears “greater responsibility” for safeguarding regional peace and stability, as well as promoting the development and prosperity of its member states, Chinese President Xi Jinping told about 20 world leaders he hosted on Sunday evening.
The ongoing SCO Summit shoulders the important mission of building consensus among all parties and stimulating momentum in cooperation, Xi was cited as telling a welcome banquet, Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported.
The two-day summit is being held in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin.
Addressing the banquet, President Xi expressed confidence that with concerted efforts of all parties, the summit would be a complete success, and that the SCO was certain to play an even bigger role and achieve more progress, making a greater contribution to boosting the unity and cooperation among member states.
He expressed the hope that the SCO will, under the guidance of the Shanghai Spirit, set sail once again from Tianjin toward an even brighter future.
Founded in Shanghai in June 2001, the SCO has expanded from six founding members into a 26-nation family of 10 members, two observers and 14 dialogue partners spanning Asia, Europe and Africa.
The Tianjin summit is the largest-ever annual summit of the group. Member states are expected to adopt key documents, including the organisation’s development strategy for the next decade.
President Xi is hosting the event for a second time.
The summit includes the 25th meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the SCO as well as the “SCO Plus” meeting, both of which will be held on Monday.
The blossoming relationship between Donald Trump and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi has abruptly turned sour.
After the heady days of the “Howdy Modi” event in Houston, and the mega “Namaste Trump” show in Ahmedabad, where a stadium was packed with over 100,000 people to welcome the US president and his family, the humiliation by his “true friend” has left the Indian leader seething.
For over a decade, Mr Modi has meticulously crafted his image as a global leader rubbing shoulders with, and hugging, world leaders. He now finds himself humiliated by the planet’s most powerful man.
Ukraine war latest: Putin arrives in China for rare visit
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Sky’s Neville Lazarus explains what impact the tariffs will have.
The opposition parties have wasted no time in rubbing salt into that wound, egging Mr Modi to retaliate in the national interest. But so far he has maintained his silence.
The indignity began in May after the four-day conflict between Indian and Pakistan. Mr Trump announced on social media that he brokered a ceasefire between two nuclear-armed arch-rivals that was spiralling. This was even before the ceasefire was put in place by the leaders of both countries.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif instantly thanked the US president for bringing peace to the region and went on to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize. Both countries are now exploring crypto and mining deals.
Mr Modi has remained silent, his government instead credited its military for forcing Pakistan to concede. Even as Mr Trump has spoken of his intervention publicly over 30 times now.
Moreover, he has offered to intervene in the decades-old Kashmir dispute, a taboo subject in India.
Image: Vladimir Putin shakes hands with officials during a welcoming ceremony in China. Pic: Reuters
India is ‘Kremlin’s laundromat’
Then came the swift punishment of an extra 25% tariff levied on India for buying discounted Russian crude oil, taking the total duties to 50%, one of the highest in the world.
The US government justified its actions as a national security concern that is fuelling the war in Ukraine and so applied aggressive economic leverage.
Mr Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro described the Russia-Ukraine conflict as “Modi’s war”, and said “the road to peace runs, at least partly, right through New Delhi”.
“India’s Big Oil lobby has turned the largest democracy in the world into a massive refining hub and oil money laundromat for the Kremlin. It’s really easy. India can get 25% off tomorrow if it stops buying Russian oil,” he added.
Though China is the largest buyer of Russian oil, it has been left untouched.
In 2021, Russian crude accounted for just 3% of India’s imports, but this has risen to about 40% in 2024 – making Moscow the country’s largest supplier.
India says it buys cheap Russian crude for its own energy security and is now pushing for a swadeshi mantra, or self-reliance, reducing the burden of import.
Image: India’s Prime Minister Modi is welcomed by the Indian community upon his arrival in Tianjin, China. Pic: Reuters
Sensing the unpredictability of the US president, the punitive actions and humiliation by his administration, New Delhi is recalibrating.
In the run-up to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting, there have been a flurry of personal meetings between the Indian, Chinese and Russian foreign ministers.
Mr Modi’s visit to China is his first in seven years and the first since the deadly clashes in May 2020 between soldiers of both militaries in which 20 Indian soldiers lost their lives, resulting in an uproar in the country for retribution. The relations went into deep freeze.
The two Asian giants share over 2,000 miles of border, much demarcated and with unresolved land disputes.
India-Russia relations
There is much history to the special relationship between India and Russia. During the Cold War, India was clubbed in the Soviet Union camp, while America favoured arch rival Pakistan.
Both have stood the test of time and supported each other in international forums against western powers on contentious issues.
The relationship strengthened particularly in the defence sector. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Russia supplied 65% of India’s weapons purchases during the last two decades.
Though India is trying to wean itself off by shopping for military hardware from Western countries, it is a time-consuming process with complicated issues of technology transfers involved.
Image: India’s PM Modi shakes hands with Xi Jinping. Pic: Reuters
‘Dance of the dragon and elephant’
In his bilateral meeting with the Indian leader on Sunday, China’s leader Xi Jinping said: “The two countries must deepen mutual trust, and make opportunities for each other’s development rather than threats.
“We should accommodate each other’s concerns and uphold peaceful coexistence. Jointly safeguard peace and tranquillity in border areas, ensuring that boundary issues do not define the entirety of China-India.
“Being good neighbours and friends, partners who achieve mutual success, and realising the ‘dance of the dragon and the elephant’ should be the right choice for both China and India.”
Mr Modi added “both countries should pursue strategic autonomy, and their relations should not be seen through a third country lens”.
The SCO meeting and bilaterals between Mr Modi, President Xi and Russian President Vladmir Putin will be analysed in minute detail, but intense scrutiny will also be on the reaction of the US president.
Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin have met on the sidelines of a showpiece summit in China that seeks to challenge US-led, western-dominated blocs and is being attended by the leaders of more than two dozen nations.
The Chinese and Russian leaders, who are closely allied under what they have termed a “limitless” partnership, discussed Putin’s recent meeting with Donald Trump, according to a Kremlin official, who gave no further details.
The bilateral meeting was one of several for Xi on Sunday, who is hosting the annual Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Tianjin. The SCO is a 10-member bloc of Eurasian nations, and the summit is also being attended by the leaders of 16 observer or “dialogue partner” nations.
Xi personally welcomed several leaders including the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, and the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, before the delegates attended a formal reception.
Xi told the welcome reception that in the past century there had been a “significant increase in instability, uncertainty and unpredictable factors”, and that the SCO had become an “important force in promoting the building of a new type of international relations and a community with a shared future for mankind”.
Footage published by Russian state media showed Xi and Putin, who arrived in Tianjin with an entourage of senior politicians and business representatives, warmly greeting each other at a photocall before calling in an interpreter for a lengthy and animated conversation.
Putin and several other attenders are expected to stay on for a military parade in Beijing on Wednesday to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the second world war, which China refers to as the war of resistance against Japanese aggression. The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, is also expected to attend.
The Tianjin summit is the largest held by the bloc since it was formed in 2001. The SCO is a key part of Beijing’s push for stronger multilateral alternatives to western or US-led blocs such as Nato.
Putin told the Chinese state news agency Xinhua on Saturday that the SCO meeting would “consolidate solidarity” among the Eurasian nations and “help shape a fairer multipolar world order”.
The goal appears to have been helped by the upheaval brought by Trump’s tariff regime and other foreign policy moves. Modi and Xi’s meeting took place five days after Washington imposed punishing 50% tariffs on Indian goods due to Delhi’s purchases of Russian oil.
It is Modi’s first visit to China in seven years, and comes amid efforts by China and India to rebuild trade ties and resolve long-running Himalayan border disputes.
“We are committed to progressing our relations based on mutual respect, trust and sensitivities,” Modi said after meeting Xi.
Xi said China-India ties could be “stable and far-reaching” if both sides focused on viewing each other as partners instead of rivals, state media reported.
In a meeting with Erdoğan, Xi said China and Turkey should strengthen cooperation in the area of counter-terrorism, according to Chinese state media. Xi also met leaders of the Maldives, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, and the autocratic leader of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, a key ally of Putin.
The bilateral talks were held at the Tianjin Guest House, an intimate venue surrounded by lush greenery. Large sections of Tianjin were closed to traffic and a significant police presence was deployed around the city.
Lim Chuan-Tiong, a researcher with the Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia at the University of Tokyo, said Putin and Xi meeting again was a sign of the continuation of their “limitless” partnership, and closing ranks while both deal with a common foe – the US.
“As long as the mutual opponent [US] has not been defeated, China and Russia’s off-limits cooperation will remain,” Lim said. “Their cooperation also serves to highlight a global order that exists beyond the United States.”
Moscow’s claims over Ukraine and its full invasion in 2022, as well as Beijing’s claim over Taiwan and threats to invade, have further isolated both governments from western and other democracies.
Russian analysts have said the Ukraine war is now a main pillar of the bilateral relationship and that Moscow would want know how Beijing would respond if the US were to ask it to put pressure on Russia to end the fighting.
“The longer the war [on Ukraine] drags on, the more Russia will need China’s assistance, whether economically or other forms,” Lim said. “China also recognises that it is unlikely for Sino-US relations to return to their pre-2018 state and thus has no choice but to accept a close alignment with Russia.”
Beijing purports to take a neutral stance on the Ukraine war but has become an economic lifeline for Russia, and Ukraine has accused it of providing direct aid to Moscow’s campaign. The two countries have separately increased joint military drills.
A Chinese academic who spoke on condition of anonymity said Moscow had expected more support from its ally but Beijing had been at pains to avoid further punitive sanctions.
“China says there is ‘no limit’ but in practice it hesitates, constantly looking over its shoulder, wary of pressure from the west, the EU and Nato. It has never really taken Russia seriously – and Russia saw through this long ago,” the academic said.
China’s President Xi Jinping attends to a bilateral meeting with Nepalese Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli (not pictured), ahead of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit 2025, in the Guest House of Tianjin, China, 30 August, 2025. — Reuters
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation security forum now bears “greater responsibility” for safeguarding regional peace and stability, as well as promoting the development and prosperity of its member states, Chinese President Xi Jinping told about 20 world leaders he hosted on Sunday evening.
The ongoing SCO Summit shoulders the important mission of building consensus among all parties and stimulating momentum in cooperation, Xi was cited as telling a welcome banquet, Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported.
The two-day summit is being held in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin.
Addressing the banquet, President Xi expressed confidence that with concerted efforts of all parties, the summit would be a complete success, and that the SCO was certain to play an even bigger role and achieve more progress, making a greater contribution to boosting the unity and cooperation among member states.
He expressed the hope that the SCO will, under the guidance of the Shanghai Spirit, set sail once again from Tianjin toward an even brighter future.
Founded in Shanghai in June 2001, the SCO has expanded from six founding members into a 26-nation family of 10 members, two observers and 14 dialogue partners spanning Asia, Europe and Africa.
The Tianjin summit is the largest-ever annual summit of the group. Member states are expected to adopt key documents, including the organisation’s development strategy for the next decade.
President Xi is hosting the event for a second time.
The summit includes the 25th meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the SCO as well as the “SCO Plus” meeting, both of which will be held on Monday.
Israeli airstrikes and gunfire killed at least 18 people in and around Gaza City, local health authorities said, as Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet prepared to discuss plans to seize the city.
Residents of Sheikh Radwan, one of the largest neighbourhoods of Gaza City, told reporters the area had been under Israeli tank shelling and airstrikes throughout Saturday, overnight and on Sunday morning, forcing many families to flee.
Local authorities said the latest toll from Israeli tank and gunfire included 13 people who were trying to get food near a food distribution site in the central Gaza Strip, and at least two in a house in Gaza City. An Israeli army spokesperson said it was reviewing the report.
In Barcelona, a humanitarian aid flotilla carrying activists including Greta Thunberg prepared to set sail for the shattered territory on Sunday, two days after the Israeli military ended temporary pauses in the area that had allowed for some aid deliveries.
Gaza City was a “dangerous combat zone”, the military said in justification for its decision.
Rezik Salah, a father of two from Sheikh Radwan, told Reuters that Israeli troops were now “crawling into the heart of the city … from the east, north and south, while bombing those areas from the air and ground to scare people to leave”.
In Jerusalem, Israeli officials said Netanyahu’s security cabinet would meet on Sunday evening to discuss the next stages of the planned offensive to seize Gaza City, although a full-scale offensive is not expected to start for weeks.
Israel has said it aims to evacuate the civilian population before moving more ground forces in. Mirjana Spoljaric of the Red Cross said such a move would provoke a massive population displacement that no other part of the Gaza Strip would be able to absorb.
About half of the territory’s more than 2 million residents are sheltering in Gaza City, local sources estimate, although thousands are believed to have left or to be trying to leave, to seek refuge in more central and southern areas of the territory.
Large crowds in Tel Aviv demonstrated against the war on Saturday night and the families of hostages still being held by Hamas in Gaza protested outside the homes of Israeli cabinet ministers on Sunday morning.
Separately on Sunday, Hamas confirmed the death of Mohammed Sinwar, its presumed leader in Gaza, more than three months after Israel said it had identified his body in a tunnel beneath the European hospital in Khan Younis, in central Gaza.
The war began with a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023 in which about 1,200 people – mostly civilians – were killed and 251 taken hostage. Forty-seven hostages are still being held in Gaza, about 20 of whom are believed to be alive.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 63,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Gaza, considered reliable by the UN. It has left much of Gaza in ruins and plunged it into a humanitarian crisis.
The UN this month declared a state of famine in the territory, saying 500,000 people faced “catastrophic” conditions.
The aid flotilla from Barcelona carrying anti-war activists including several European lawmakers and other public figures such as the former Barcelona mayor Ada Colau was due to set sail on Sunday.
Organisers of the Sumud (“Perseverance”, in Arabic) flotilla said it aimed to “break the illegal siege of Gaza” and “open a humanitarian corridor to end the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people”. They did not say how many ships were involved.
Thiago Ávila, a Brazilian activist, said last week that the flotilla, expected to reach Gaza in mid-September, would be “the largest solidarity mission in history, with more people and more boats than all previous attempts combined”.
Dozens of other boats are due to leave Tunisian and other Mediterranean ports on 4 September. Israel has already blocked two attempts by activists to deliver aid by ship to the coastal territory, intercepting the vessels offshore in June and July.
The Israeli army said on Sunday it had carried out a strike on a site run by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. “The existence of the site and the activity within it constitute a violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon,” it said.
