Russian President Vladimir Putin was spotted holding hands with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in an awkward show of unity as they attended a Chinese summit of anti-Western coalition leaders dubbed the “axis of upheaval.”
Putin and Modi were keen to show off their closeness as they shared a ride to a meeting with China’s President Xi Jinping in Tianjin.
They were together at the Shanghai Co-Operation Organization (SCO) summit, hosted by Xi as a means to showcase his vision of a new world order free from the dominance of the United States.
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“Always a delight to meet President Putin,” Modi wrote on social media while sharing a picture of the ride. “Conversations with him are always insightful.”
The Putin and Modi show then took things even further, holding hands and laughing like old friends as they walked into a meeting.
Both presidents made a beeline for Xi, and the trio shook hands and formed a close circle before being joined by translators.
All three smiled warmly at one another and, at one point, Modi held both leaders’ hands while letting out an exaggerated laugh. It was a show of unity designed to send a message to their Western counterparts.
“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, told The New York Times.
Such an approach by Modi signals a dramatic shift in U.S.-India relations, with New Delhi’s bureaucracy typically seeking to avoid overt displays of warmth with Russia and China in an attempt to maintain close ties with Washington.
This appears to have changed, however, with Trump’s imposition of a vast array of tariffs on India, which rose to 50 percent when he punished Modi for purchasing sanctioned Russian oil, pushing them also further into China’s sphere of influence.
Xi, meanwhile, praised his country’s new “far-reaching” partnership with India and agreed to end the long-running border dispute between the two nations, claiming it was vital for the “dragon and the elephant to come together.”
“The world is going towards transformation. China and India are two of the most civilisational countries. We are the world’s two most populous countries and part of the Global South. It is vital to be friends, a good neighbour, and the dragon and the elephant to come together,” the Chinese president told an audience at the summit.
Xi also took indirect but unsubtle shots at the United States during his speech on Monday, urging members of the SCO to “oppose a Cold War mentality, bloc confrontation and bullying.”
Putin also chimed in with his oft-repeated claim that the West was responsible for the war in Ukraine, claiming attempts by Europe to bring Kyiv into NATO forced the Russian leader to invade the country.
“In order for a Ukrainian settlement to be sustainable and long-term, the root causes of the crisis, which I have just mentioned and which I have repeatedly mentioned before, must be eliminated,” he said.
A Kremlin spokesman on Sunday also blamed the “European party of war” for hindering peace talks between the U.S. and Russia.
“We are ready to resolve the problem by political and diplomatic means,” Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
“But so far, we do not see reciprocity from Kyiv in this. So we shall continue the special military operation.”
Putin, Xi, and Modi will continue to meet with the 20 world leaders in attendance at the summit over the coming week as they attempt to shore up the support for their new power bloc. The most significant event is scheduled for Tuesday, when the trio is set to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un.
