Reverberation From SCO Summit

The just-concluded two-day-long Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit held in Tianjin, China, has sent a clear message to the Western powers that the global south has taken decisive steps towards the consolidation of a multipolar world order based on equal partnership. The gathering of 20-plus heads of state and government proves that the unipolar world order based on post-Cold War power architecture is coming under severe strain.

Billed as the first of its kind since the inception of SCO in 2001, this summit conference drew the attention of the world not because of its large representation, but because of the participation by the top leaders of three emerging superpowers of the Eurasian region: China, India and Russia. This conference is being taken by political analysts as a master stroke delivered by China to counter the influence of Western powers.

Cordial ambience 

The summit, attended by a pantheon of influential leaders from the global south, was able to grab the global spotlight, sending ripples around the world, especially to the intended audience in Washington and Brussels. The collaborative and cordial ambience surrounding the three leaders seemed to signal a challenge to the unipolar Western domination in favour of an equality-based multilateral world order. The orchestrated hugs, giggles and whispering among the leaders of the three major powers appeared to cast a glimpse of what the collaborative ambience of the emerging world will look like.  

SCO summits were organised several times in the past, but this summit carried a distinctly different tone and tenor, showcasing a power projection against Western domination.  Apart from other things, this summit also evinced a broad framework of cooperation by entertaining leaders like Shehbaj Sharif from Pakistan and Recep Tayyip Erdogan from Turkey and Masoud Pezeshkian from Iran. Small country like Nepal was also given fair visibility by according to Nepal’s Prime Minister K. P. Oli, though the Jinping-Putin-Modi triad occupied the central stage throughout.

The prominent presence of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the summit and the inclusion of an anti-terrorism clause in the Tianjin Declaration accentuated his centrality. Modi was treated with all attention from both Xi Jinping and Putin as if he deserved this after being shoved to their lap by Donald Trump, by slapping a 50 per cent tariff on Indian goods exported to the US markets.

 China, Russia and India, together with already present massive economic and strategic strength outside NATO and the G7 alliance, used this summit to project an alternative vision for collaborative partnership for protecting national security and achieving economic prosperity. The vibrant participation from a large majority of countries of the global south shows that they are eager to come closer against the Western powers using coercion to win compliance and subservience from weaker countries. 

The SCO was formed at China’s initiative to promote cooperation in combating terrorism, promoting energy cooperation and enhancing connectivity.  But of late, China appears eager to anchor it with BRICS and Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which are indispensable instruments for giving shape to the architecture of the emerging multilateral global system. Aligning with this objective, the BRICS countries are working in the direction of more sustainable trade connectivity by expanding supply chains and diversifying markets. They are also working to decouple the international trade payment system from reliance on the US dollar. India, Russia and China are already settling trade transactions in their own currencies.

Over the past two decades, SCO has taken significant steps to reframe the global economic and security system.  Adding on to this effort, Russian President Vladimir Putin is reported to have proposed at Tianjin to issue joint bonds as a strategy to deepen economic integration within the grouping and reduce dependence on the Western economic system. Similarly, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced a plan to set up an SCO Development Bank to replace Western financial institutions as an alternative to funding development infrastructures.  This summit also came out with a suggestion to popularise the use of local currencies in trade to reduce vulnerability to currency shocks and to bypass the dollar through economic cooperation.

 These are novel ideas, which, if implemented, carry the potential to deliver a severe blow to the Western economic system.  China is already investing in digital corridors, railway transportation, ports and other infrastructures in the Eurasian region and Africa with a view to ensuring a long-term economic return for itself and helping create sustainable development infrastructures in the aid recipient countries. 

Partnership 

The Tianjin SCO summit was a platform giving voice to more than 40 per cent of the global population against the unipolar domination of the Western world, marked by trade sanctions,’ tariff tyranny’ and proxy wars.  Similarly, this summit also brought Russia, India and China closer together as the pivot of the emerging new global order based multipolar partnership. 

The two-day SCO summit had a finale in Beijing in the form of a massive military parade showcasing China’s military strength. With the grand convening capacity and the show of modernisation and sophistication, China tried to establish itself as the leader of the evolving world order. As the intended message of the summit reverberates across Western boardrooms and power corridors, the key challenge for the architects of the new global order will remain to define the sphere of influence within the evolving framework of international diplomacy. 

Dr. Bharadwaj is a former ambassador and former chairperson of Gorkhapatra Corporation. bharadwajnarad@gmail.com.