SCO 2025 Summit: PM Modi To Visit China After 7-Year Gap Meeting With Xi Jinping Crucial Amid Trump Tariffs

(MENAFN- Live Mint) Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chinese President Xi Jinpin g, and Russian President Vladimir Putin will be among the world leaders attending a regional security forum in China next week.

Other leaders from Central Asia, the Middle East, South Asia, and Southeast Asia will also gather at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) 2025 summit, which will be held in the Chinese port city of Tianjin from August 31 to September 1.

Modi would be visiting China after more than seven years as the two neighbouring countries work on further defusing tensions roiled by deadly border clashes in 2020.

Also Read | Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to visit India next week for border talks

The prime minister last shared the same stage with Xi and Putin at BRICS 2024 summit held in Kazan, Russia.

India's priorities at the SCO 2025 include trade, connectivity, respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, said Indian foreign ministry official Tanmaya Lal.

The recent detente between India and China after over five years of heightened border tensions and renewed tariff pressure on New Delhi from the United States is driving hopes for a positive meeting between Xi and Modi on the sidelines of the summit.

"It's likely (New Delhi) will swallow their pride and put this year's SCO problems behind them in a bid to maintain momentum in the détente with China, which is a key Modi priority right now," said Eric Olander, editor-in-chief of research agency The China-Global South Project, reported Reuters.

Last week, Russian embassy officials in New Delhi had said Moscow hopes trilateral talks with China and India will take place soon.

Also Read | Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to visit India next week for border talks

Beijing sees the SCO 2025 summit as an opportunity to showcase the powerful Global South post US-led international order after Donald Trump took office.

"Xi will want to use the summit as an opportunity to showcase what a post-American-led international order begins to look like and that all White House efforts since January to counter China, Iran, Russia, and now India have not had the intended effect," said Olander. "Just look at how much BRICS has rattled (US President) Donald Trump, which is precisely what these groups are designed to do."

The security-focused SCO, which began as a group of six Eurasian nations in 2001, has expanded to 10 permanent members and 16 dialogue and observer countries in recent years.

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