No. 79 of 108
August 31, 2025
China’s Xi Jingping is hosting Russia’s Vladimir Putin, North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, India’s Narendra Modi, Myanmar’s Min Aung Hlaing, Serbia’s Alexandar Vucic, Slovakia’s Robert Fico, and delegations from Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Turkey. The occasion? Two-day summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a regional security grouping. The SCO represents 40 percent of the world’s population and a significant portion of global energy reserves. “Beijing wants to signal that China is the indispensable convener in Eurasia ... The optics are straightforward: China is not just a participant in regional order-making – it is a primary architect and host.”
In times of collapse and values-neutral contradictions, danger, ambition, and opportunity meet, flirt, jostle and surge to fill any void of power and influence. That the rulers of China, India, and Russia would very publicly stand cozily together is an unintentional gift delivered by the rulers of America. History will write about this moment. May we learn from it as we pass through it.