‘Chaotic and Intertwined’: Xi Jinping’s Indirect Jibe at US Power Politics at SCO Summit 2025

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday accused unnamed powers of “bullying behaviour” in world affairs as he opened the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) leaders’ summit in Tianjin.

Xi said, “The security and development tasks facing member states have become even more challenging, and members must oppose cold-war mentality, bloc confrontation and bullying.” He also warned that the international landscape was becoming increasingly “chaotic and intertwined.”

The gathering drew senior leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Xi used the forum to press for deeper economic and security cooperation among Eurasian states. He backed his rhetoric with fresh commitments intended to bind SCO members closer to Beijing’s orbit: he pledged ¥2 billion (about $280 million) in grants and announced plans for a ¥10 billion loan package aimed at boosting trade, infrastructure and finance ties inside the bloc.

Russia Presses NATO Issue

On the summit sidelines, Putin reiterated Russia’s stance that Nato expansion must be addressed if a durable settlement to the Ukraine war is to be found, a line he said he had discussed during a recent meeting with US President Donald Trump and that he planned to raise with SCO partners.

Putin claimed the war was not triggered by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but was “a result of a coup in Ukraine, which was supported and provoked by the west.” “The second reason for the crisis is the west’s constant attempts to drag Ukraine into Nato,” the Russian president added.

The comments reinforced how the Tianjin meeting is doubling as a forum for major-power diplomacy on Europe’s security fault lines.

India–China Engagement

PM Modi attended the summit and held bilateral talks with Xi and other leaders, projecting a message of pragmatic engagement even as New Delhi preserves strategic autonomy. Indian officials described Modi’s outreach as focused on development-oriented cooperation, security, connectivity and economic opportunity, while avoiding formal alignment with any single power bloc.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, whose permanent members include China, India, Russia, Pakistan, Iran and several Central Asian states, continues to be promoted by Beijing and Moscow as a non-Western alternative for regional diplomacy and economic integration.

Organisers have highlighted trade, infrastructure, technology and AI cooperation as priorities, even as underlying strategic frictions among members (notably India and China) persist.

The Tianjin summit comes at a sensitive moment in global geopolitics: rising US trade and tariff pressure, an enduring Russia-Ukraine conflict, and competition over technologies such as chips and AI. Xi’s critique of “bullying” and the fresh financial pledges aim both to reassure SCO partners of China’s leadership role and to offer an alternative governance architecture to countries wary of Western dominance.