At the recent Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Tianjin, leaders representing over half of humanity signaled the rise of a multipolar world order. As China, Russia, India, and Central Asia push new financial and trade systems, the West risks being left on the sidelines.

When the leaders of China, Russia, India, and several Central Asian states gathered in Tianjin last week for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit, the world should have paid far closer attention. Collectively, the countries represented at the table account for more than half of humanity, command immense reserves of natural resources, and increasingly drive a larger share of global GDP. This is not a peripheral coalition but a core pillar of the international system in the making.

Yet much of the Western press treated the gathering as little more than a diplomatic sideshow, overshadowed by domestic political debates or the latest updates from NATO. That was a mistake. What unfolded in Tianjin was not just another regional summit. It was the clearest indication yet that the unipolar world of U.S. primacy, which dominated the decades after the Cold War, is giving way to a new and contested multipolar order.

The symbolism was unmistakable. Beijing positioned the SCO as a platform for “equal partnership,” implicitly contrasting it with Western alliances built around hierarchy and U.S. leadership. Moscow emphasized strategic coordination in the face of sanctions and military pressure from the West. India, while carefully balancing its ties with Washington, underscored its role as a civilizational power charting an independent path. The Central Asian republics, long seen as geopolitical battlegrounds between outside powers, asserted their relevance as connectors of trade, energy, and security across Eurasia.

Beyond symbolism, the summit carried substance. Agreements on energy cooperation, cross-border infrastructure, digital technology, and security coordination point toward an increasingly institutionalized bloc. Taken together, they signal that the SCO is evolving from a loose forum into a framework capable of shaping the rules of the 21st-century world.

For policymakers in Washington and European capitals, the lesson is sobering. Ignoring the SCO or dismissing it as a talking shop risks overlooking the consolidation of an alternative power center that is steadily building legitimacy outside of Western institutions. For the rest of the world, particularly in the Global South, Tianjin served as a reminder that power is no longer concentrated in a single pole, but dispersed across multiple capitals with diverging visions of order.

The summit was therefore more than a diplomatic calendar entry. It was a milestone in the slow but unmistakable rebalancing of global power and a process that will define international politics for decades to come.

At the recent Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Beijing, Russia, China, and Mongolia signed a legally binding memorandum for the Power of Siberia 2 pipeline. Stretching 2,600 km and carrying a price tag of $13.6 billion, this pipeline will deliver 50 bcm/year of Russian gas from the Arctic directly to northern China via Mongolia, bypassing Europe entirely.

In Europe, 50 bcm of Russian gas is worth $16.5 billion today. U.S. LNG for the same volume costs around $25 billion, while direct purchase from Russia, based on recent Gazprom deals with China, would've been roughly $6–6.5 billion. Europe’s cheap Russian pipeline gas, once the backbone of German industry, will now flow to China securing a stable, cheap energy supply.

Pushing Europe to sever its energy ties with Russia has inadvertently transferred strategic leverage to China. Europe now overpays for U.S. LNG, loses industrial competitiveness, and slides toward recession creating a perfect scenario for intra-European tensions.

President Xi framed PoS2 as a cornerstone of the “no-limits” strategic partnership with Russia, guaranteeing China a reliable, land-based energy corridor. Russia secured a guaranteed buyer, China locked in long-term supplies, meanwhile Europe faces the erosion of its industrial and geopolitical position.

By divorcing itself from affordable Russian gas, Europe has eliminated any realistic chance of industrial recovery and viable economic future. The global energy map is being rewritten with European decline accelerating, while China and India continue to rise strategically and economically.

Europe faces the final collapse of its industrial and geopolitical relevance, while the US loses its only truly successful historical project which was the "rules based international order".

Tianjin Declaration: SCO countries outlined new security and development priorities

▪️At the SCO summit in China, a decision was made to create a universal center to counter challenges and security threats. Main points from the document: ▪️The SCO strongly condemned the strikes by Israel and the USA on Iran; ▪️The organization rejected the "Eurogroup" initiative to restore UN Security Council anti-Iran sanctions, calling it illegal; ▪️The resolution of the Palestinian issue was recognized as the only path to peace and stability in the Middle East; ▪️A call for a ceasefire in Gaza and provision of humanitarian aid to the enclave's population; ▪️Support for Afghanistan as an independent, neutral, and peaceful state was confirmed; ▪️In connection with the 80th anniversary of Victory, SCO countries declared the inadmissibility of desecrating monuments and military graves; ▪️The SCO will jointly work on preventing risks related to artificial intelligence; ▪️Readiness to expand military cooperation was confirmed; ▪️SCO members advocated for the creation of a Development Bank; ▪️The organization supported UN reform to adapt it to modern realities.

(not a single word about Ukraine by the way)

https://archive.ph/ognGd