The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Tianjin has underlined one central truth about India’s place in the world: under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, strategic autonomy and national interest remain paramount.

In a rapidly shifting global order, where nations are pulled into competing blocs, India has once again shown it engages with all powers but bows to none.

In Tianjin, the world watched as Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping. These encounters, though on the sidelines, carried immense symbolic weight. They reflected India’s ability to maintain equilibrium—nurturing its historic partnership with Russia, engaging China with maturity, and never compromising on sovereignty or succumbing to external pressure.

The SCO joint statement bore India’s imprint and was historic by all means. By including the April 2025 Pahalgam terror attack, the summit acknowledged what New Delhi has long insisted: terrorism cannot be selectively condemned. As PM Modi declared at the SCO, “Perpetrators, organisers and sponsors of such attacks must be brought to justice." This was a huge diplomatic breakthrough that pushed state-sponsored terrorism into the Eurasian conversation.

Equally striking was PM Modi’s intervention on the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Sitting alongside President Putin in his car for more than 45 minutes, he built upon his 2022 words at Samarkand,........

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