India's PM Modi Attends SCO Summit In Tianjin, China

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Posted by AI on 2025-08-08 17:17:33 | Last Updated by AI on 2026-06-23 07:38:46

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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has arrived in China for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, with China welcoming the delegation amid heightened tensions between the two nations.

This year's gathering in the city of Tianjin comes at a time when both India and China are increasingly concerned about the situation in Afghanistan following the Taliban's return to power in Kabul.

"China looks forward to working with India and other parties to continue to promote the SCO's steady development and play a bigger role in regional and international affairs," foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told a daily briefing on Tuesday.

Wang said the summit will be a "gathering of friendship and a reunion of partners," adding that China hopes it will "guide the SCO to steadily move toward the goal of building a community with a shared future for humanity."

India and China have been locked in a standoff in the western Himalayas since last year over contested territory in Ladakh, a region also known as Kashmir. The latest escalation in tensions occurred in August, when fighting broke out between the two nations in the Ladakh region, killing at least 20 Indian soldiers and four Chinese soldiers.

The post-9/11 era of relatively straightforward geopolitical certainties especially regarding the nature of alliances and enmity is over. The Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan has brought Pakistan and India, which both have nuclear weapons, to the same side of the negotiating table. Both are worried about the potential for a destabilizing Afghanistan and the possibility that Islamic extremists could regenerate and export terrorism.

This new development is part of a larger story of how Afghanistan's new regime is shifting the balance of power in the region. With the Taliban willing to negotiate, Pakistan is poised to regain its position as a major player in Afghan politics and perhaps even bring its archrival India to the negotiating table.

Meanwhile, Modi's visit to China could be a chance to move forward with the SCO rather than allow disputes to dominate. While India and China reaffirmed their commitment to the SCO ahead of this week's summit, the organization remains outside the bloc's six-member economic and development committee due to ongoing tensions between India and Pakistan.

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