Opinion | From China to Central Asia, a regional security bloc’s long, slow march towards an alternative world order
The world’s attention was on Singapore and Charlevoix but the future may have been in the Chinese city of Qingdao
While the world was captivated this week by the globetrotting show of US President Donald Trump, another summit just days earlier suggested what an alternative world order might look like.
Various heads of state from member nations of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) met in the Chinese city of Qingdao for the bloc’s annual heads of state meeting.
The SCO’s activities have been limited in the decade and a half since it was formed but this year’s summit had some significant moments.
First and foremost was the presence of – and handshake between – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pakistani President Mamnoon Hussain. While the membership of the two regional rivals is likely to be a major block to future activity, the presence of their leaders showed some of the organisation’s potential. Modi’s attendance alone signalled that the world’s biggest democracy wanted to maintain strong links to this archetypal non-Western institution to make sure it had all of its international bases covered.
The event was also an opportunity for two of the West’s biggest pariahs, Iran and Russia, to grandstand.