The SCO covers the Rimland, the cordon sanitaire around the Eurasian Heartland. Only Europe is missing from the list.

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Three-in-one

You’ve all seen it, right? You’ve all seen those images of Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, and Narendra Modi shaking hands, as if to seal a pact, an alliance, a great secret? Did you all feel that thrill, that emotion charged with joy and hope, and at the same time the screech of the collective West?

If you haven’t seen those images, do so. It’s therapeutic. It’s like stepping out of the world for a moment, taking a breath of fresh air, and then coming back in more energized than before.

The powers of the multipolar world are doing what they said they would do, and they are doing it with deeds, not just words. They are reshaping the world by promoting the values that animate the theory of the multipolar world. They are promoting cooperation, prosperity, and peace. They are defining a new approach to international relations, geopolitics, finance, and trade. They are shaping the poles that will be the constellation of the imminent future of all humanity. And they are doing it together.

The numbers confirm this. Trade between China and SCO members has surpassed successive milestones — $300 billion, $400 billion, and $500 billion — reaching a record $512.4 billion in 2024. If observers and dialogue partners are included, the figure reaches $890 billion. In the first seven months of 2025, trade between China and SCO partners reached $293 billion, up 3% from the previous year.

These are not just economic results: these figures testify to resilience in an era marked by sanctions, protectionism, and geopolitical fragmentation. The SCO, founded in 2001 as a security forum between six countries, now has 10 full members — with the entry of India, Pakistan, Iran, and Belarus — representing almost half of the world’s population and about a quarter of global GDP.

The entire West is absent, an absence that weighs heavily and is worth more than any official announcement.

But let’s take it one step at a time.

The first point to note is that the model of great powers driving others forward is still valid and functioning. RIC.

Make a note of this acronym: Russia-India-China. The three great powers of the multipolar world, the ‘heart’ of BRICS+, the SCO and the significant partnerships we have today. These three powers are leading other lesser powers in a common direction, offering them protection, assistance, friendship and a common worldview to build together. This is exactly the opposite of what Anglo-American imperialism has preached and practiced for too long.

The multipolar vision is proving to be a winning one: the global majority is increasingly emancipated from the West and does not want to have anything to do with it because being with the West means being deceived or, worse, being hurt. the Old World is effectively isolated and left to its own failure, but, beware, this isolation is not imposed by countries working for a multipolar world, but rather it is the West itself that is isolating itself through threats, bullying, sanctions, and schizophrenic megalomania.

Asian wisdom teaches us not to oppose those who come against us with opposing force, but rather to exploit their own energy to dodge them and let them fall. This is what we are seeing happen inexorably.

The host does the honors

PRC President Xi Jinping was very clear from the outset: the Shanghai Cooperation Organization now faces ever-greater responsibilities in ensuring regional peace and stability, as well as promoting shared development, at a time marked by growing global uncertainty and instability. The partnership is expanding, evolving into a defense structure that could transcend the continent and become an international system.

Founded in Shanghai in 2001, the SCO has gradually expanded: from its original six members, it has become a transregional platform that now has 10 full members, 2 observer countries, and 14 dialogue partners, representing about half of the world’s population and a quarter of the global economy.

Since its inception, the SCO has been inspired by the ‘Spirit of Shanghai’, based on the values of mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultation, respect for diversity, and the pursuit of common development. Xi emphasized how this approach has strengthened internal cohesion, fostered practical cooperation, and increased the organization’s presence in regional and international affairs.

Tianxia, ladies and gentlemen. Millennial Asian wisdom that is offered as a model for all.

Today, in a context of momentous transformations and growing factors of instability, the organization must take on an even more incisive role in preserving security and promoting prosperity for all member countries. According to Xi, the Tianjin summit has the mission of building consensus, giving new impetus to cooperation, and outlining a vision of growth for the future.

During the meeting, member states are called upon to approve long-term strategic documents, including the roadmap for the next decade, and Xi wants to chart a course for multipolar global governance. Western hegemony cannot be allowed to return. The bully must be isolated so that he can no longer harm other members of the class.

From Tianjin, the SCO embarks on a new journey full of hope towards an even brighter future.

Putin seizes the opportunity

Russia came to the summit in a position of enormous privilege. All the leaders were eager to shake hands with Putin, who seized the opportunity to take the conflict in Ukraine to a higher level, namely that of shared participation with the partnership. This is a strategically important move, made possible by Russia’s consolidated position and bilateral agreements on military cooperation with many of the participating countries.

NATO’s expansion towards its eastern borders and repeated attempts to include Ukraine in the Atlantic Alliance are cited as one of the main causes of the current conflict. The Western narrative of aggression and invasion are historical and political lies that the world has now come to know.

In reconstructing the roots of the crisis, the Kremlin leader has established a direct link between the events of almost ten years ago and today’s war scenario. In his view, the breaking point came in 2014, with the change of power in Kiev, which he described as a coup orchestrated by the West, which illegitimately compromised the geopolitical balance in the region. The second cause is NATO expansion, a topic we have often commented on. After the Maidan uprising, Ukrainian political forces opposed to joining the Alliance were gradually excluded from power, a move combined with Western pressure that forced Russia to safeguard its strategic interests and ensure national security.

This defense is now in the hands of the SCO. NATO and the EU will therefore have to make much more sophisticated political and strategic calculations before attacking.

Modi returns home

Narendra Modi was the long-awaited guest. The recent reconciliation with China was sealed in Tianjin. An exceptional event, a step of enormous significance. The U.S. threatened India, India chose which side to take. The appeal of the West is still very magnetic, but the Indian leader was able to choose the path to return home safely.

It was Modi’s first visit to China since 2018. Xi was waiting for him. On August 19, during talks between special representatives, Beijing and New Delhi reached a 10-point consensus on border management, indicating a further step towards stabilizing relations between the two neighbors. A few days later, the sanctions imposed on each other were lifted. The meeting in Tianjin was the second between the two leaders in a year, following the previous meeting in October in Kazan, Russia, which had allowed for a “reset” in bilateral relations.

According to Xi, the two nations must work together to maintain peace in border areas and prevent the border issue from dominating the entire bilateral relationship. As long as both maintain the strategic goal of being partners rather than rivals, and see each other as opportunities for development rather than threats, individual problems can be managed and bilateral ties will progress in a steady and sustainable manner.

The best choice for China and India is to be good neighbors and partners who support each other, according to the symbolic image of “the dragon and the elephant dancing together” evoked by Xi during the discussion. Both are also two key countries for the Global South, for which they must commit to a long-term strategic perspective, working for stable and harmonious development, and positively intensifying all relations.

In effect, the two countries must shoulder their historical responsibility, defend multilateralism, strengthen communication and coordination on international and regional issues, ensure fairness and justice, and work together for a multipolar world.

Modi described the meeting as “fruitful” on social media, reiterating that India and China are partners and that the points of agreement outweigh the differences, confirming the commitment to strengthen relations on the basis of trust, respect, and mutual sensitivity. For Modi, cooperation between India and China will help make the 21st century a truly Asian century, strengthening global multilateralism.

The Yalta model

Let’s go back to that magical handshake. A pact, an agreement. A photo reminiscent of Yalta, the moment that established the international order of the 20th century as we know it. What, then, can we expect from this new photograph?

Certainly, differences. This time there are not three enemy countries, as there were with Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin, nor are there just two opposing blocs, both of which are very Western. This time we have an alliance that covers the whole of Asia, extending into the Global South, with Africa as its first geographical and natural partner.

Yalta meant many things at the time. Beyond the division of Germany and the reckoning with the war, the agreement provided for the liberation of the occupied countries and their reorganization, marking the official beginning of the UN as an organization ‘protecting’ what had happened and for governance shared by the great powers (only five). The agreement of that distant 1945 – 80 years ago – aimed to establish a balance between the powers.

Here we are again, but this time it is different. It is not a balance of the victor imposing rules on the vanquished, nor that of nation states with modern political ideologies. We have multiple poles in an emerging multipolar system of complex relationships, we have civilizational states, and therefore a different model, and we have a shared intention of peace and prosperity, not military and economic domination. And this order must be safeguarded and preserved. The SCO is therefore one tool among many. The geopolitics of partnerships serves this purpose: it is a tool of transition, an effective model for global restructuring. Of course, there is still a long way to go, but… it is working.

Geopolitically speaking, we must also note another significant aspect.

The SCO covers the Rimland, the cordon sanitaire around the Eurasian Heartland. Only Europe is missing from the list, which unfortunately was swallowed up eighty years ago. This means one thing in particular: the SCO defends the Civilizations of the Earth, which are under attack by NATO, the synthesis of the Civilizations of the Sea. The eternal clash of classical geopolitics is still before our eyes. Take a moment to look again at that photo of the three leaders, then think about these last words. You will understand how momentous what is happening is.