New Delhi: At the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, images were everything. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chinese Premier Xi Jinping and Russia’s Putin presented a united front—to the point where they were seen holding hands. The “tableau carried multiple messages,” report David Pierson and Mujib Mashal in the New York Times.
“Optics is a key part of this summit, and the White House should grasp that its policies will result in other countries looking for alternatives to meet their interests,” Manoj Kewalramani, head of Indo-Pacific studies at the Takshashila Institution, has been quoted as saying.
“The three-way hand-holding between Mr. Modi, Mr. Putin and Mr. Xi was nothing short of the smiling manifestation of a troika that Moscow had recently said it hoped to revive. In another demonstration of closeness soon after, Mr. Modi shared a car with Mr. Putin as they rode together to a meeting on the sidelines of the summit. The two then spoke in Mr. Putin’s limousine for 50 minutes before the start of their official meeting, according to Russian state media,” notes the report.
In striking defiance of Trump’s tariffs, Modi “hailed” India’s burgeoning energy ties with Russia at the SCO summit, report Andres Schipani, Joe Leahy, and Anastasia Stognei in the Financial Times.
“The Kremlin quoted Putin as saying trade and economic co-operation between Russia and India were ‘generally showing positive dynamics’ against the backdrop of their ‘friendly, trusting’ relations,” says the report. “India has become Moscow’s largest buyer of seaborne crude oil, importing nearly $140bn worth since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Indian government data shows.”
The Wall Street Journal’s Yaroslav Trofimov also looks at the messaging of the SCO summit, the “carefully-choreographed” visuals of which were aimed squarely in one direction –– towards the US.
“The cordiality of the Tianjin confab will sound alarm bells in Western capitals, said Michael Fullilove, the executive director of the Lowy Institute think tank in Australia. “President Trump’s gentle treatment of Vladimir Putin has done nothing to pull Russia away from China,” he said. “His rough treatment of Narendra Modi, on the other hand, is pushing India closer to Russia and warming up its relations with China,” reads the report.
Kabir Taneja of the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) has also been quoted in the story, saying that it’s clear that the US isn’t backing down. And so, India is telling the US: “we will not be cowed down.”
Interactions in Tianjin continue! Exchanging perspectives with President Putin and President Xi during the SCO Summit. pic.twitter.com/K1eKVoHCvv
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) September 1, 2025
The bonhomie on display aside, the issues still persist –– at least according to Chinese analyst Shi Yinhong.
“Of course, the stabilization of India-China relations was helped very much by Trump. But the relations are only stabilized—which is a substantial progress compared to the worst moments,” the Beijing-based Renmin University professor told the WSJ. “The issues are all still there, and they will not be solved. Every major problem, every dispute, and even the psychological hostility between the two nations are still there.”
Arundhati Roy is among those Indian writers whose books receive widespread global publicity. For her latest, Mother Mary Comes to Me, she has been interviewed by, or the book has been excerpted, in nearly all major foreign publications.
In an interview with The New York Times, she explains the parallels between MAGA (Make America Great Again) in the USA and Hindutva India –– referring to the similarities as part of the same script, the authoritarian playbook.
“The ruling party is confused with the government and all of it is confused with one man. So you’re seeing that in the U.S., and I look at it in shock. You thought that there was a mechanism in place, there were checks and balances in place. But clearly there isn’t a way of handling someone who’s completely out of control,” says the Booker winner.
“The way statisticians are being fired for giving out figures that the authoritarian doesn’t agree with—same thing here, you can’t believe any of the government figures on economics because everything that doesn’t suit the ruling establishment is dismissed, it’s thrown away, and a new picture is put in its place.”
Two Kerala-based sisters have been rendered “Stateless” after being unable to retrieve a renunciation certificate from Pakistan, which would enable them to get Indian citizenship, reports Neyaz Farooquee in the BBC.
“But as they were under 21 years, the minimum age for renouncing citizenship in Pakistan, the high commission did not issue their renunciation certificates at the time, they said,” says the article. “They approached the High Commission again after turning 21, but it still refused to grant the certificate without giving any explanation, says the petitioners’ mother, Rasheeda Bano (her daughters didn’t want to speak to the media). She and her son are now Indian citizens but her daughters, she says, have been in limbo for years.”
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
Also Read: ‘Show of regional solidarity’—global media’s reading of Modi, Xi, Putin huddle at SCO & Trump factor