PUTIN, MODI AND XI SEND MESSAGE TO 'TRUMPED-UP' U.S.

New chapter in global diplomacy

- K.K.S. PERERA

A private car ride with Vladimir Putin may not be the grand moment President Donald Trump imagined. Putin showed he had no shortage of companions, joining hands with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in the backseat of diplomacy.

The three strongmen staged a spectacle that looked less like routine diplomacy and more like a performance meant to rattle Washington. An anxious Trump plans to rebrand the 80 year-old Pentagon as the Department of War a controversial move that could cost tens of millions of dollars.

For India, long courted by the West as a counterbalance to China, Trump's sudden tariffs felt like a slap. Moscow brushed off Washington's calls for peace in Ukraine. Beijing continues squaring off with the United States on trade wars, Taiwan, and global influence. Together, the trio seemed eager to send a message: the world's balance of power is shifting.

The setting was Tianjin, a bustling port city in northern China, where leaders met at a major regional summit. More than twenty heads of state gathered for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), but all eyes were on this trio. Their chemistry and united front turned the gathering into more than just another diplomatic event. Since its founding, the SCO has grown into the largest regional security bloc outside Western influence, but this summit marked its boldest moment. In Tianjin, the leaders seemed to tell the United States that their friendship was not just symbolic—it was strategic, and perhaps the beginning of a new world order.

Jinping and Putin were reportedly overheard discussing how organ transplant advances could potentially extend human lifespans to 150 years.