Trump stung by SCO optics

THE Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Tianjing, followed by the grand military parade in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, was all about optics and signalling.

- BY ABBAS NASIR

Looking at the reaction from the US and EU it would be safe to say that the messages hit bull's eye.

But let's first look closer to home. Before the summit, India's Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said India would be looking for a categorical condemnation of cross-border terrorism, which in common language means that India’s allegations against Pakistan are upheld.

You may recall in this column, last week, there was a mention of the SCO principle of collective or indivisible security and, once again, that was upheld as both the Pahalgam terror incident and the Jaffar Express and the Khuzdar school bus terror attacks, in which many innocent lives were lost — with India blaming Pakistan for the first and Pakistan saying India was responsible for the second and third incidents — were condemned but neither country was named.

Despite lack of success on this issue, as in the SCO Foreign Ministers meeting in June, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was triumphantly holding hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin and laughing in videos captured of their stand-up chats with China’s strongman Xi Jinping.

Knowledgeable sources suggested Mr Modi was keen to thumb his nose at the US and its 'unreliable' leader and his erstwhile friend President Donald J. Trump, whom he has courted in the past, even raising the slogan, ahead of the US elections: Abki baar, Trump Sarkar (The next administration will be Trump's).