Leaders convene with China’s Xi for summit inauguration

Presidents of Russia and Belarus joined more than two dozen Eurasian leaders on Monday for a high-profile ceremony hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping, marking the final day of a summit designed to showcase Beijing at the heart of regional diplomacy.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, which began Sunday in the northern port city of Tianjin, comes just days before a major military parade in Beijing commemorating 80 years since the end of World War II.

The SCO brings together China, India, Russia, Pakistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Belarus, with another 16 nations engaged as observers or dialogue partners.

Monday’s event, billed as the summit’s official opening ceremony, was the first time all leaders convened in one setting. Xi is scheduled to deliver a keynote address.

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Tianjin on Sunday, accompanied by senior officials and business leaders. Xi also held a series of bilateral meetings, including with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko — one of Moscow’s closest allies — and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is visiting China for the first time since 2018.

Modi told Xi that India sought to advance relations “on the basis of mutual trust, dignity and sensitivity.” The two neighbours, rivals for influence across South Asia, clashed in a deadly border confrontation in 2020 but began easing tensions after a meeting between their leaders in Russia last October — their first in five years.

Large parts of Tianjin were cordoned off for the summit, with heavy security and streets lined with SCO posters bearing slogans such as “mutual benefit” and “equality” in Chinese and Russian.

Beijing and Moscow have often presented the SCO as a counterweight to NATO. This year’s gathering is the first since Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

More than 20 leaders, including Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, are attending the group’s largest meeting since its founding in 2001.

Putin is expected to meet Erdogan and Pezeshkian separately on Monday to discuss the Ukraine war and Iran’s nuclear programme. Many of the visiting dignitaries will also travel to Beijing on Wednesday to attend the military parade, which will feature North Korean leader Kim Jong Un among its guests.