Prime Minister Modi met President Xi Jinping and President Putin at the SCO Summit, marking a visible diplomatic thaw after years of India-China border tensions. The meeting signals normalisation in bilateral ties following the Galwan Valley clash of 2020 and subsequent disengagement at friction points. Both sides indicated momentum ahead of the BRICS Summit. The SCO gathering brought together Eurasian leaders on trade, security, and connectivity — all core pillars of the grouping's founding mandate.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) was founded in 2001 by China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan — growing from the earlier Shanghai Five framework. India and Pakistan became full members in 2017, making SCO a rare multilateral platform where India, China, and Pakistan share the same table. Iran joined in 2023, and Belarus was admitted in 2024, expanding the grouping to ten full members.

For India, the SCO is both an opportunity and a diplomatic tightrope. India engages with SCO's counter-terrorism mechanism (RATS — Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure), trade facilitation, and connectivity goals. However, India has consistently opposed the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a key SCO-linked infrastructure project, as it passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

The Modi-Xi meeting at the SCO is significant because it follows a formal disengagement agreement at Depsang and Demchok in October 2024 — the first comprehensive patrolling restoration since Galwan. Diplomatic engagement between two nuclear-armed neighbours with contested borders rarely proceeds smoothly, and summits like SCO provide neutral multilateral cover for bilateral conversations.

For UPSC aspirants, the examiner will test the founding year, membership expansion, RATS, India's membership year, and India's nuanced position on SCO-linked projects. The geopolitical triangle of India-China-Russia — all three being SCO members — is a recurring exam theme.