Cooperation among leading non-Western countries is increasing. Russia and India will increase the scale of economic cooperation, including in the energy sector. This news has become especially relevant and important in light of recent geopolitical events. It reflects important trends in world politics.

Days before, the United States of America sharply criticized Delhi. Washington said that India should not continue to buy oil from Russia. President Donald Trump sharply criticized the Indian leadership and introduced additional large duties on imported goods. At the same time, the Indian authorities do not intend to take any retaliatory measures in connection with the increase in the size of duties on goods supplied to the United States from India. Earlier, a 25% duty on goods from India, introduced by US President Donald Trump in response to Russian oil purchases, came into force. Thus, goods from India are now subject to a duty of 50%, if we consider the previously introduced tariffs of 25% as part of the US administration’s revision of trade agreements with countries around the world. Tariffs on goods will affect more than half of India’s $87 billion exports. According to Reuters experts, the increase in tariffs by America will lead to a drop in Indian GDP growth by 0.8%. This will be a significant blow to the growing Indian economy and corporations that are actively exporting to the United States.

The cooling of US-Indian relations did not end there. The world press noted that President Donald Trump tried to talk to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the phone four times in recent weeks, but he refused to talk. This was reported by the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, citing sources. In addition, there has been a certain tilt of the Trumpist American administration towards Pakistan, Delhi’s strategic and sworn enemy. The day before, President Trump said that the United States had made a deal with Pakistan on joint oil production. “We just agreed with Pakistan, according to which Pakistan and the United States will work together to develop their vast oil reserves. We are currently selecting an oil company to lead this partnership,” he wrote on his social media. The American leader suggested that Washington would one day sell oil to India. Let me remind you that Trump announced a sharp increase in tariffs on supplies from 185 countries in early April 2025.

In short, there is a serious cooling between the United States and India, which has the potential to significantly reduce the level of trust and contacts between the two countries. This circumstance is interesting from two sides. Firstly, India, located in South Asia, is of great strategic importance for Washington. In view of the global geopolitical and economic confrontation with powerful China, the United States attached great importance to the role of India. Delhi has quite tense relations and territorial disputes with Beijing. The acute phase of the conflict occurred in 2020. In America’s strategy, India must contain the growing power of China. However, Prime Minister Modi’s policy, which is aimed at protecting India’s sovereign interests, turned out to be more complex and multifactorial.

It was then that Indian and Chinese border guards clashed in the disputed Himalayan region, which both sides claim. The conflict had a fairly wide resonance in both countries. After that, both India and China began to increase their military presence in the region, stopped air traffic, and boycotted some goods. However, in 2025, significant changes occurred that began to bring the leaders of the non-Western world closer together. The parties resumed direct flights, agreed to simplify the visa regime, and also returned to border trade. “China and India should be partners, not enemies,” admitted Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Amid the discord with Washington, Prime Minister Modi visited Beijing for the first time in seven years and met with the Chinese leader. And on August 31, a trilateral meeting of the leaders of Russia, China, and India took place.

Secondly, the demonstration of India’s sovereignty became an important signal of the new international system that is just being built, where the United States is no longer the absolute hegemon. The “new countries” of Asia and the East are striving to pursue sovereign and more independent foreign policies. Patriotism, respect for their history, and their nation are growing stronger in these societies. And the political elites are striving to achieve a more respectful attitude towards themselves from the “golden billion.” At the same time, the West has ceased to be an indispensable part of the world economy and politics. Cooperation in trade and finance between the countries of Asia, the East, and Eurasia is strengthening. The economies of Russia, China, and India, enormous and colossal in their resources and potential, can well deepen cooperation with each other and achieve high economic results without deep cooperation with the countries of Europe and the United States. In a word, cooperation among leaders of the BRICS and the SCO is becoming stronger and more active. And this, in its potential, is capable of introducing significant transformations into the international system that is only just forming.

The SCO summit in Tianjin, China, was an important event. This forum with the participation of more than twenty world leaders showed that the world is not only larger than the West. This summit showed that the Non-West countries have the political will and desire to deepen cooperation in order to demonstrate their ambitions and sovereignty to the West. But it is not the number of leaders who took part in the forum that was important. The situation and atmosphere of the summit were important. The leaders of powerful and actively developing Russia, China, and India openly demonstrated colossal political will to change the global balance of power. But it is not only the will of the leaders that leads to global and very profound changes, but also objective factors that are almost impossible to reverse today. The economic, military, and technological power of Russia, India, and China is fascinating.

The fall of unipolarity is accomplished. The world is no longer unipolar. There is reason to believe that it will most likely never be so. Unipolarity is, in essence, a bright and short divergence. It became possible due to the loss of will, self-confidence, and potential of the Soviets. The Soviet Union itself, having laid hands on itself, led to unipolarity. In fact, it was not a victory of the United States in the literal sense of the word. Yes, the Soviets in the last period of their existence turned out to be uncompetitive, but they themselves disintegrated. But over the past quarter century, much has changed in the world. The growth of the West turned out to be much faster and more ambitious than many assumed. In the liberal capitals, it was believed that the development of Asia and the East would lead to rapprochement, democratization, and Westernization of the non-Western world. In reality, it turned out that this is not quite so, and in some cases, it is radically different.

In short, developing countries outside the West are actively developing and deepening cooperation with each other. The world is becoming larger and more diverse.