By Ishita Malakar
At the Shanghai Cooperation Summit, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin laid out their common vision for a revamped global security and economic framework, one that puts the “Global South” front and center, directly taking on the influence of the United States. This two-day event saw over 20 leaders from non-Western countries come together, including India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was visiting China for the first time in seven years. In his speech, Xi highlighted the importance of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in fostering the democratization of international relations and boosting the global presence of developing nations. “We must firmly oppose hegemonism and power politics, and uphold genuine multilateralism,” he declared implicitly critiquing the U.S.-led global order.
While the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) has mostly taken on a symbolic role since it was founded in 2001, Xi Jinping seized the opportunity at the summit to unveil some bolder plans for the group. He suggested setting up a new SCO development bank and committed 2 billion RMB (around $280 million) in grants, plus an extra 10 billion RMB ($1.4 billion) in loans for the member countries.
Eric Olander, editor-in-chief of The China-Global South Project, described the move into international finance as a significant turning point for the organisation.
Tensions between New Delhi and Beijing took a sharp turn for the worse in 2020 after some deadly clashes erupted along their disputed Himalayan border. However, things started to calm down last year when they reached a border agreement. Still, analysts believe that the recent spike in the U.S.-India trade dispute has actually sped up the diplomatic thaw between these two Asian giants. At the summit, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a pledge and promised to tackle their contrasting viewpoints just days after former U.S. President Donald Trump slapped a hefty 50 percent tariff on Indian goods and criticized New Delhi for its ongoing energy ties with Russia. It was together in solidarity that Modi, Xi and Putin formed diplomatic ties at this long awaited summit.