India's strategic reset in Tianjin

The 2025 Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit in Tianjin turned out to be the largest gathering in the institution's history, convening 20 foreign leaders and 10 heads of international organisations, including United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres.

- HARSH V PANT & ATUL KUMAR

More than a display of institutional breadth, the summit served as a stage for geopolitical signalling, most visibly through the joint presence of the leaders of China, India, and Russia. Their highly choreographed meetings were designed for maximum optics and deployed as deliberate instruments of international messaging, reflecting the emergence of a multipolar world.

For Russian President Vladimir Putin, the summit provided an opportunity to engage closely with both India and China while demonstrating that Moscow is not bereft of partners. Chinese President Xi Jinping aimed to use the occasion to burnish his credentials as the architect of an emergent political and economic order. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, however, conveyed a distinct and calculated message that Indian foreign policy is rebalancing its strategic relations with the world's major powers and restoring its posture to the centre. In doing so, New Delhi is translating its long-proclaimed doctrine of multi-alignment into practice, positioning itself as a pivotal actor in an increasingly multipolar system.

Strategic leverage: Since the end of the Cold War, Indian foreign policy has been adjusting by building its ties with the West in general and the US in particular.