The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) 25th summit, held early September in Tianjin, China, unprecedentedly redefined its diverse future ambitions; global governance, sustainable development, and security are emerging as the cornerstones—and China is at the forefront of this transition. With strategic alliances in the background, India and Russia, together with SCO’s regional members and the Global South, are unwaveringly playing complementary roles towards establishing a more inclusive, participatory, and fairer world. In other words, the SCO summit served as a space for dialogue and multilateral cooperation, working to strengthen regional security, economic development, and political collaboration.
Our latest insight into reports: Chinese President Xi Jinping affirmed in his opening speech at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Tianjin, China, that “the SCO represents a model for a new type of international relations, and that we must advocate for equal and orderly multipolarity in the world, inclusive economic globalization, and promote the construction of a more just and equitable global governance system.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s speech was unanimously approved by all participating leaders, especially with UN Secretary-General António Guterres also stating emphatically that “China plays a fundamental role in supporting global multilateralism.” From a multitude of different perspectives, Jinping’s strategic position to lead the new geopolitical architecture is primarily to challenge the prevailing western-controlled unipolar order. His “peace or war” narrative signals an effort to position China as a primary actor in global decision-making processes and to position China and its partners as influential drivers.
It’s worth noting that China is leveraging current global instability to advance a multipolar framework and further pursuing an assertive shift in global power dynamics, directly challenging the longstanding dominance of Western nations. Significantly, Xi Jinping’s proposal to pursue consistently a bold commitment to world peace and sustainable development, seeking a broad representation in multilateral institutions and organizations (including the United Nations, IMF, and World Bank), is explicitly grounded in renewing primary principles that respect diversity. A concrete example is the call for UN Security Council reform, where China supports expanding representation to better reflect today’s world, including countries from Africa, Latin America, and Asia.
Why Multipolarity Matters to Russia
It is well-known and glaringly visible across the world that China has comparatively wider or broader consolidated economic clout and has displayed these past several years, indiscriminately strengthening its economic cooperation with Latin American, African, and Asian countries. On the other side, Russia seemed to be selecting its own ‘reliable partners,’ which offered some limitations despite the official position advocating for tectonic multipolarity. Russia’s world is, more or less, divided into ‘friends and enemies’ according to its definition and understanding of one world, one planet.
Following the sudden collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia has been exploring economic transformation, modernizing and upgrading its economy, as seen unfolding now. And of course, there have been challenges and obstacles. In practical terms, Russia has come a long way with its current perestroika and glasnost in the country and its relations with former Soviet neighbors and consolidating foreign policy around the world.
In conclusion of his official visit to the SCO summit in China, Vladimir Putin, at the final media conference on September 3rd, pointed out that most of the documents adopted by participants look to the SCO’s future in the emerging new world. “In this context, I would like to point out China’s global governance initiative. More importantly, this initiative is aimed at promoting positive sentiments between the countries that attended the summit in China and potential partners among the countries that are not willing today to proclaim their readiness for new partnership.”
As part of the partnership, Putin stressed that “Russia has always opposed Ukraine’s membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. But we have never questioned its right to conduct its economic and business activities as it wishes, including joining the European Union.” As for whether the multipolar world has formed or not—generally, its contours have certainly taken shape. Multipolarity does not mean the emergence of new hegemons. Among many other countries with similar perspectives, Russia and China consistently advocate for a fairer world order based on the global majority. There are economic powerhouses, such as India and China, and either within the SCO or within BRICS, all participants in international affairs should have equal rights, and all should be in the same position from the standpoint of international law.
Putin’s expressions throughout the SCO summit, interlaced with candid viewpoints on the emerging world—in fact, the current world system—should concentrate on building relations and interactions on the basis of the world’s majority. “The idea—I mentioned this earlier—is that the world should be multipolar, meaning that all participants in international communication should be equal, and more equal than others should not exist, and the unipolar world must cease to exist, including in the interests of those, at least in the interests of the peoples of those countries, whose leadership still upholds this moribund and, one might even say, already obsolete system,” underscored Putin at the media conference.
China’s Comparative Advantages as Global Leader
China is situated in the Asian region. Despite its large population of 1.5 billion, which many have considered an impediment, China’s domestic economic reforms and collaborative strategic diplomacy with external countries have made it attain superpower status over the United States. While United States influence is rapidly fading away, China has indeed taken up both the challenges and unique opportunities to strengthen its position, especially its trade, investment, and economic muscles.
Arguably, China has worked on all aspects of its economy and external investment footprints; these combined are now recorded as its grandiose achievements. Still, for example, China is engaging in a long-term competition with the U.S., and that is the challenge for the United States. China’s global investment and trade are just unimaginable and give the country global power.
It has systematically transformed its economy at the same time and maintained the political structure. Its major cities and coastal areas are far more prosperous compared to rural and interior regions. Of course, the United States has also developed its individual states, while Russia’s regions look not too far different from the typical Soviet era.
Experts vehemently argue and vividly show how useful the population (demography) has been as a factor for China’s success down the years. It is a matter of how to get the population to support the growth of the economy. With the 1.5 billion population, China has brought more people out of extreme poverty than any other country in history. China reduced extreme poverty by 800 million. The United States has a population of 380 million, two times more than Russia, which has a meager 140 million in relation to the size of the country. In one of his previous speeches, Putin declared that Russia’s population could reach 146 million by 2025, mainly as a result of immigration. Russia has been expelling foreign labor out of the country instead of deploying this labor to the regions, in industries and agricultural fields, to increase its exportable presence in the countries in need and in the external markets.
It is highly likely that Russia would be missing its opportunity, especially due to a shortage of labor. It has to develop its regions and modernize most of the Soviet-era industries to produce export goods, not only for domestic consumption. Its investment and trade in consumables is only developing at a snail’s pace compared to China. While China’s Belt and Road Initiative has expanded significantly over the previous years, Russia is more focused significantly on oil and gas as export products. In recent years, Russia has significantly strengthened bilateral ties with Asian countries such as China, India, North Korea, and Vietnam. With new agreements signed at the 25th SCO summit, China and India would be extending their economic tentacles to Russia’s Far East, producing in the special industrial zones and exporting massively across, utilizing the northern transport corridor to the European Union.
Certainly, superpower status has to be attained by practical, multifaceted, sustainable development and maintaining appreciably positive relations with the world. In a global context dominated by diverse tensions, Beijing already presents itself as a stable and reliable alternative for international collaboration. From the analysis, China is practically up to this world’s leadership.
Background: The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a Eurasian political, economic, and security bloc, has become a key platform for China and Russia to promote alternatives to Western-dominated institutions. Against the backdrop of strained ties with the United States and global economic turbulence, the bloc converged in Tianjin, China, with leaders from over 20 non-Western countries in attendance.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is steadily increasing its influence in addressing pressing international issues. It serves as a powerful driver of global development processes and the establishment of genuine multilateralism. As of today, in addition to its ten (10) full members, the SCO also engages two observer states—Mongolia and Afghanistan—as well as 15 dialogue partners. It was established in 2001 and has actively worked to promote peace, security, trust, and cooperation across the Eurasian continent.