The summit in China

Putin, Modi, Erdogan, Kim: all at Xi Jinping's court

The 25th Shanghai Coopertation Organisation summit opens in Tanjin, the 'alternative NATO' bringing together 26 Eurasian leaders under the Chinese umbrella

by Rita Fatiguso

31 August 2025

Il presidente dell'Azerbaigian Ilham Aliyev parla durante un incontro bilaterale con il presidente cinese Xi Jinping in vista del vertice dell'Organizzazione per la cooperazione di Shanghai (SCO) del 2025 a Tianjin, Cina. (Reuters)

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Key points

A new centre of gravity
Putin's Russia axis
Strategic Parade

3' min read

The half of the globe with Eurasian roots and a distinct identity as the Global South, some 20 countries in all, is in Tianjin at the court of Emperor Xi Jinping to chart the common course for the next ten years.

A new centre of gravity

Under the wing of the 25th Summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Sco goes the search for an alternative permanent centre of gravity in security and economics, in international relations, but also in the ability to make a common front in a divisive context between increasingly distant and antithetical world blocs.

This year's summit is the biggest since the Sco was founded 20 years ago, so much so that Liu Bin, assistant to the Chinese foreign minister and increasingly rising through the ranks of the ministry, called the bloc an 'important force in building a new type of international relations'.

The Chinese strategic planning style is a far cry from Trumpian 'creative destruction'; in Tianjin, China is thinking big and aiming for 'a new equitable international economic and political order' by cobbling together interests ranging from GDP to nuclear and military clout.

Putin's Axis with Russia

A sort of 'parallel NATO' accelerating the pace. There is Narendra Modi's India still in shock at the 50 per cent tariffs slap inflicted by friend Donald Trump's US, unexpectedly open to a bilateral with China on Chinese soil that had not occurred in years after the border frictions of 2020.

There is Iran, militarily attacked by Israel and the US, which China defends against old and new sanctions, from the UN and the European bloc.

There is Russian President Vladimir Putin, who even after his Anchorage meeting with Donal Trump in Alaska for peace in Ukraine professes his rock-stronger friendship with China and has Vyacheslav Volodin, President of the Duma, the Russian Parliament, on a preliminary visit to Beijing, say that the solidity of the friendship between China and Russia is not to be touched because the bilateral relationship is now 'the most stable, mature and strategically significant among the great powers'.

Meanwhile, having reaffirmed the China-Russia priority axis, Lukashenko's unstoppable Belarus joins in.

There are the strategic neighbouring powers in addition to Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, but also Pakistan and some Asean countries with which China itself seeks to offset the trade pressure of the tariffs negotiations with the US in a kind of alternative basin to the loss of market share in North America.

There is Egypt, a strategic partner in Africa, there is Erdogan's Turkey, the Eastern gateway to Europe.

Tianjing matters for China, unlike the Brics Summit in Brazil to which President Xi Jinping sent Premier Li Qiang without justifying his absence, Tianjing is a double game, to be actively attended, not only to verify the stability of its alternative alliance to the West, but to personally manage a two-day work event capable of strengthening leadership at home.

Strategic Parade

Finally, the Sco Summit cannot be read in isolation from the big parade next Wednesday, 3 September, which will celebrate 80 years since the victory over Japan and the Nazi-fascists. An international showcase that complements the Strategic Summit that will have closed a few kilometres north of the Chinese capital.

The event will attract a large number of foreign guests, but most of them will come from Tianjin who will stay in China to watch the military parade for the end of the Sino-Japanese War and World War II. Vladimir Putin, in the name of the enormous sacrifices faced by the two nations contributing decisively to the victory against Japanese militarism and German Nazism will be on stage returning Xi Jinping's visit to Moscow's celebrations.

Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Hong Lei, confirmed the presence of 26 world leaders including Kim Jong Un, the controversial leader of North Korea, his mere presence in China in such a context is a very strong signal given to the whole world. Kim is worthy of being on the stage of honour under which the best of China's war equipment will parade. Wu Zeke, a spokesman for the National Liberation Army, anticipated that there will be 'a new type of combat capability', more advanced than those of a decade ago, which shocked the world at the 70th anniversary parade.