Xi unveils vision for new global order at Shanghai Cooperation Organisation forum

The Chinese leader promotes multilateral trade systems, an apparent dig at U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff war

Chinese President Xi Jinping urged Shanghai Cooperation Organisation members to leverage their “mega-scale market” on Monday (1 September), while unveiling his ambition for a new global security and economic order that poses a challenge to the United States.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) has set a model for a new type of international relations, Xi said in opening remarks addressing more than 20 world leaders at a two-day summit held in northern China’s port city Tianjin.

“We should advocate for equal and orderly multipolarisation of the world, inclusive economic globalisation and promote the construction of a more just and equitable global governance system,” he said.

China will provide 2 billion yuan ($280 million) of free aid to member states this year and a further 10 billion yuan of loans to a SCO banking consortium, he added.

“We must take advantage of the mega-scale market… to improve the level of trade and investment facilitation,” said Xi, urging the bloc to boost cooperation in fields including energy, infrastructure, science and technology, and artificial intelligence.

Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other leaders from Central Asia, the Middle East, South Asia and Southeast Asia attended the opening ceremony in a major show of Global South solidarity.

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

Xi also called on organisation partners to “oppose Cold War mentality and bloc confrontation” and to support multilateral trade systems, an apparent dig at U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff war which has disproportionately affected developing economies such as India, whose exports were hit with a 50% levy last week.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said China played a “fundamental” role in upholding global multilateralism on Sunday.

Analysts say China will use this year’s largest-ever summit to demonstrate an alternative vision of global governance to the American-led international order at a time of erratic policymaking, a U.S. retreat from multilateral organisations and geopolitical flux.

Beijing has also used the summit as an opportunity to mend ties with New Delhi.

‘Partners, not rivals’

Modi, who is in China on his first visit in seven years, and Xi both agreed on Sunday their countries are development partners, not rivals, and discussed ways to improve trade ties amid the global tariff uncertainty.

Analysts say Xi and Modi are seeking to align against pressure from the West, days after U.S. President Donald Trump imposed a punitive total of 50% tariff on Indian goods, partly in response to New Delhi’s purchase of Russian oil.

Trump’s moves hurt decades of carefully cultivated U.S. ties with New Delhi, which Washington had hoped would act as a regional counterweight to Beijing.

Modi told Xi his country was committed to improving ties with China and discussed reducing India’s burgeoning bilateral trade deficit of nearly $99.2 billion, while emphasising the need to maintain peace and stability at their disputed border after a clash in 2020 triggered a five-year military standoff.

“We are committed to progressing our relations based on mutual respect, trust and sensitivities,” Modi said during the meeting on the sidelines of the summit, according to a video posted on his official X account.

He said an atmosphere of “peace and stability” has been created on their disputed Himalayan border and that cooperation between the two nations was linked to the interests of 2.8 billion people of the world’s two most populous countries.

The nuclear-armed Asian neighbours share a 3,800 km (2,400 miles) border that is poorly demarcated and has been disputed since the 1950s.

Xi said that China and India are each other’s development opportunities rather than threats, Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported.

“We must … not let the border issue define the overall China-India relationship,” Xinhua reported Xi as saying.

China-India ties could be “stable and far-reaching” if both sides focus on viewing each other as partners instead of rivals, Xi added.

Ties between the nations were ruptured by the 2020 clash, in which 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers died in hand-to-hand combat, following which the Himalayan border was heavily militarised by both sides.

Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri told reporters later in the day in that the border situation had evolved over the course of last year, following a patrolling agreement in October. “The situation at the border is moving towards normalisation,” he said.

To a question on the U.S. tariffs, he said that Modi and Xi discussed the international “economic situation” and the challenges it created.

“They tried to … see how to leverage that for building greater understanding between themselves and how to … take forward the economic and commercial relationship between India and China,” he said.

The leaders also discussed expanding common ground on bilateral, regional, and global issues, and challenges like terrorism and fair trade in multilateral platforms, a statement from the Indian foreign ministry said.

Meanwhile, a planned Chinese mega-dam in Tibet has sparked fears of mass water diversion that could reduce water flows on the major Brahmaputra River by up to 85% in the dry season, according to Indian government estimates.

India also hosts the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader whom Beijing views as a dangerous separatist influence. India’s arch-rival Pakistan also benefits from staunch Chinese economic, diplomatic and military support.

With Reuters, edited by g.g.

Caption: Participants of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit 2025, including President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko (2-L), Prime Minister of Pakistan Shehbaz Sharif (3-L), President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev (4-L), President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev (5-L), Russian President Vladimir Putin (6-L), Chinese President Xi Jinping (C-L), President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev (5-R), Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi (4-R), President of the Kyrgyz Republic Sadyr Japarov (3-R), and President of Iran Masoud Pezeshkian (2-R) pose for photos at the Meijiang Convention and Exhibition Centre in Tianjin, China, 01 September 2025. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit 2025 is held in Tianjin on 31 August and 01 September. EPA/SUO TAKEKUMA / POOL