A new global governance initiative?

The recent Shanghai Cooperation Council (SCO) summit in Tianjin, China has essentially revived the fortunes of the SCO or in other words exhibited the might, power and reach of China in the backdrop of tariffs and sanctions upheaval created by the US President Donald Trump. At the summit, China gave a call to establish a new Global Governance Initiative, to make the world more equitable.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) which was established in 2001 has not been able to make any particularly impact during the last 24 years of its existence. Like BRICS, it often came out as a place to make dignified pledges about regionalism and bemoan the various policies and strategies of the US-led global order.
However, in 2025 the SCO appeared to have taken a major step forward through Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s wooing of India and its Prime Minister Narendra Modi—the optics of the summit delivered a meaningful win, against the US.
Recently the ties between the world’s two largest democracies have not been as good, as both the partners would have liked. The first sign of the increasing trust deficit was evident when despite Trump making the claim about brokering a ceasefire between India and Pakistan in May, India repeatedly debunked any such claim.
The second irritant hastening souring of ties was the imposition of 50 per cent punitive secondary tariffs on India as a punishment for the country’s continued import of Russian oil—despite China, Turkey, and other nations purchasing substantial quantities of the very same oil from Russian firms. These actions combined sent the US-India relationship into a diplomatic spin.
Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin entered the SCO summit hand-in-hand and immediately formed a tight circle with Chinese President Xi Jinping, with warm smiles for the optics.
Xi gave a speech denouncing “Cold War mentalities” and “bullying,” without mentioning Trump’s name. He later announced a “Global Governance Initiative,” calling on nations to work in concert for a more “just and equitable” system that dismantles walls, rather than “erect them” and which seeks “integration, not decoupling.”
Trump’s tariffs have impacted many of the nations that leaders at the summit represent, and the group signed a declaration afterward that read like a thinly veiled swipe at the US leader.
The leaders stated in the Tianjin Declaration that they opposed “unilateral coercive measures” — including those of economic nature, that “undermine international law” and go against the norms of the World Trade Organisation and the UN Charter.
PM Modi described the summit as an “opportunity” for India and praised its focus on “connectivity” and trade between member states. “India has always believed that strong connectivity not only boosts trade but also opens doors to growth and trust,” Modi said.
Post this bonhomie, the bigger question is whether the three nations will be able to sustain their newly found love for each other or not. As far as the Indo-Russian ties are concerned, they have withstood the test of the times, and thus the rather bigger question is whether Indo-China relations will transform to be at the same level as that of India-Russia, given their old rivalry over the border issues etc.
An editorial in The Guardian sumps it up rather well. India’s calculation is straightforward. It has red lines: agriculture will not be opened-up to US demands; oil purchases cannot be determined by Washington; the ceasefire with Pakistan was conceded by Islamabad, not brokered by Mr Trump. Far better, from Mr Modi’s perspective, the opportunity helped to demonstrate that the US cannot take India’s partnership for granted, and to seek friends elsewhere.
For China, the rewards are immediate. Mr Trump has given Mr Xi a stage on which to pose as the host of an important multipolar gathering. Beijing sees the SCO as emphasising the US’s absence and letting others seize the stage.
For Russia, the cordiality showed that sanctions have not made it a pariah. For Turkey, its attendance preserved its ambiguity as a Nato member. For Iran, the SCO condemned the US-Israeli attacks it suffered this summer. So essentially, the more this theatre normalises China and Russia as leaders of a non-western bloc, the harder it becomes for Washington to muster global consensus – notably over Ukraine – in future crises. The SCO claims it is inclusive. But Beijing runs the show. In a real sense, Trump has handed Beijing the platform for its long game – building a system beyond the reach of the US. Whether that would allow more room for other states to manoeuvre is a moot question, and its future may depend on how many other countries join this, but at the moment India, Russia and China combined, poses a greater threat to the US-hegemony. The SCO may never fight China’s wars, but the latest move ensures Beijing will never stand alone. That is the high price the west may end up paying for Mr Trump’s narcissistic delusions.
As far as Russia is concerned, it now could secure more business with India and China, its largest trade partners. India and China have helped prop up Moscow’s economy after its invasion of Ukraine left it cut off from most Western trade.
Last year, China purchased a record of more than 100 million tonnes of Russian crude oil, which accounted for almost 20% of its total energy imports. Likewise, oil exports to India, which made up only a small fraction of its imports before the Ukraine war, has since grown to some $140bn (£103.5bn) since 2022. Together, China and India make up the majority of Russia’s energy exports, says the BBC.
Russia relies on oil and gas exports for roughly a quarter of its budget revenues, which is funding its war chest. New Delhi had offered Russia a lifeline after much of the oil supplies displaced by Western sanctions were diverted to India, which benefited from cheaper energy.
According to Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the common interests of the three countries lie in developing the economy, solving social problems, and improving the living standards of the population.
Mr Lavrov was referring to the recent bonhomie displayed by the leaders of the three countries at the SCO summit. “It is a demonstration that three great powers, representing three great civilisations, are aware of their common interests in a number of areas,” Mr Lavrov said in an interview with Russian State TV on September 7.
Overall, it seems, that though the three countries might not be able to revive the much speculated Russia-India-China Forum (RIC), but they might come closer at a bilateral level and Russia may try to work out a friendlier approach between India and China, to motivate them to emerge as bigger Asian economic powers.
Asad Mirza
The writer is a New Delhi-based senior commentator on national, international, defence and strategic affairs, environmental issues, an interfaith practitioner, and a media consultant.