What happened?
On August 9, 2025, China officially welcomed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his upcoming visit to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Tianjin, scheduled for August 31–September 1. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun described the summit as the largest in scale since the bloc’s formation in 2001, calling it a “gathering of solidarity, friendship and fruitful results” and a step toward greater regional cooperation. The SCO now includes 10 members—Belarus, China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan—with heads of member states and 10 international organisations set to attend. PM Modi’s visit will be his first to China since his first meeting in China with President Xi Jinping since 2019.
Why it matters to India
The summit offers New Delhi a platform to recalibrate ties with Beijing after years of post-Galwan strain while advancing regional engagement through the SCO. High-level meetings with Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin could help India strengthen its strategic position and reaffirm its role as a balancing force in Eurasian geopolitics.The visit also comes at a time when both India and China face shifting global trade dynamics, with US tariff actions.