SCO meeting in China

Analysis: Xi smiles inwardly as Modi and Putin arrive

Both Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin are attending the major Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) security meeting in China on Sunday. This will make Chinese President Xi Jinping smile big inside, writes Philip Alan Lote in an analysis in NRK.

For China, the meeting will be a taste of what a world without the US in the leadership role would look like. For Putin, the meeting is a diplomatic success. Yet it is India's presence that is most striking, he believes.

Instead of being a counterweight to China, India can now, together with China, present an alternative to a world led by the US at the SCO, according to Lote.

Soutik Biswas on the BBC is on the same track. India has previously had one foot in the US, one in Russia and a watchful eye on China. Trump's criticism and tariffs against India have changed things. Modi's planned meeting with Xi looks like an attempt to resume relations between the countries, he says.

At the same time, he emphasizes, with the help of several other analysts, that India seems to want to continue its strategic balancing act.

"India values ​​strategic independence and believes that contacts with different power blocs give the country influence," the text says.

Vladimir Putin arrives in China - to meet Xi and Modi

Russian President Vladimir Putin has landed in Tianjin in northern China, ahead of the meeting within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), AFP reports, citing Russian and Chinese media.

The meeting is hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping and leaders from around 20 countries are participating. Among others, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in attendance, as are leaders from, for example, Pakistan, Iran, Uzbekistan and Belarus.

NATO member Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is also participating in the meeting, which runs until Monday.

Expert on the meeting in China: Mutual suspicion

China and Russia both have an interest in cutting off the transatlantic link and weakening the EU and the US. This is what intelligence expert Johan Wiktorin tells TV4 Nyheterna, on the occasion of the meeting between Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping these days.

But even though, not least, the economic ties between the countries have grown stronger, they are not obvious allies, he points out.

– There is mutual suspicion. In some Russian circles, there is a concern about not becoming too dependent on China, says Wiktorin.

The meeting is taking place within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a kind of counterweight to the West and NATO. In addition to China and Russia, a total of about 20 other countries are participating, some of which are observers.

Hans Jørgen Gåsemyr, a senior researcher at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, tells Dagbladet that he does not expect any concrete results from the summit.

“The point of this organization is not to develop concrete policies, but to signal unity on common issues,” he says.