Photograph Source: Prime Minister’s Office (GODL-India) – GODL-India

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Tianjin offered the kind of optics global diplomacy excels at: smiling leaders, carefully staged photo ops, and an air of harmony. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi stood alongside Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, presenting an image of multipolar unity—a tableau meant to signal that a world long dominated by the West now has alternative centers of power. Yet beneath the surface, this performance revealed more about shifting alliances and simmering tensions than any genuine convergence.

For Modi, the trip carried symbolic weight. It marked his first visit to China since the deadly 2020 Galwan Valley clash, which plunged India-China relations to their lowest point in decades. His bilateral with Xi was predictably cautious. They spoke about border stability, trade, and “mutual respect,” a phrase that has become a diplomatic placeholder rather than a policy prescription. Modi’s presence signaled pragmatism: even as India deepens ties with the West, it cannot afford to disengage from a neighbor whose economy dwarfs its own and whose influence shapes the region.

Modi’s encounter with Putin was warmer. The two leaders shared a limousine ride in Putin’s Aurus sedan, an image that harkened back to the old Russia-India-China (RIC) triangle once touted as a counterweight to U.S.-led alliances. The nostalgia was palpable, but nostalgia is not strategy. Russia’s position in the world has shifted dramatically; its deepening isolation from the West has made Moscow increasingly dependent on Beijing, and its partnership with India now carries more symbolism than substance.

The summit unfolded against a fraught backdrop for Delhi. Modi’s visit came just months after a dangerous skirmish with Pakistan in May, a........

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