The first face-to-face conversation in three years, amid escalating border tensions
In the ancient city of Samarkand, Prime Minister Modi prepared to meet face-to-face with Xi Jinping for the first time since 2019, as the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation brought together eight nations whose interests converge and collide across one of the world's most contested regions. The gathering was less a celebration of shared purpose than a test of diplomatic maturity — whether leaders bound by rivalry and unresolved conflict could still sit at the same table and find, if not agreement, at least a common language. India stood at a threshold: inheriting the SCO chairmanship even as its border with China remained a wound without a treaty.
- The first Modi-Xi meeting in three years arrives not in warmth but in the shadow of military clashes in Ladakh and unresolved territorial disputes that have reshaped the bilateral relationship.
- Samarkand becomes a pressure point where eight nations — including rivals India and Pakistan, and a Russia isolated by its war in Ukraine — must share a room and a diplomatic agenda.
- Sideline bilaterals with Xi and Putin carry weight that no formal communiqué can fully capture, and India's ambassador has confirmed Modi will engage multiple leaders even as the exact schedule remains fluid.
- India is threading a careful needle: advancing economic connectivity with Central Asia while managing the friction of a deteriorating relationship with its most powerful neighbor.
- As Uzbekistan passes the SCO chairmanship to India, New Delhi gains a platform to shape regional cooperation — but only if it can demonstrate that multilateral engagement can survive bilateral tension.
Prime Minister Modi was set to travel to Samarkand for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit on September 15–16, 2022 — a gathering that carried unusual diplomatic weight. It would be his first face-to-face meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping since the 2019 BRICS summit in Brasília, and it was arriving at a moment of active border tensions between the two countries following military clashes in Ladakh in 2020.
The SCO, which grew from a 1996 mutual security agreement between China, Russia, and Central Asian states into an eight-member organization that now includes India and Pakistan, had not convened at the leadership level for two years. The pandemic-era gap meant leaders were returning to the table with much unfinished business and considerably more friction than when they last met.
Beyond Xi, Modi was also expected to hold a bilateral with Russian President Vladimir Putin — conversations that, though informal in structure, often define the real outcomes of such summits. India's Ambassador to Uzbekistan confirmed Modi's attendance and participation in multiple sideline meetings, while noting that the precise schedule would be confirmed closer to the event.
For India, the summit offered both opportunity and complexity. Economic connectivity with Central Asian nations was a priority theme, and New Delhi was preparing to assume the SCO chairmanship from Uzbekistan — a position that would give it influence over the organization's regional agenda. But the border dispute with China remained unresolved, and the question hanging over Samarkand was whether two nations in active disagreement could still engage constructively in a shared multilateral space. The summit was, in that sense, less a forum and more a measure of how much diplomatic architecture can hold when the foundations are under strain.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was preparing to travel to Samarkand, Uzbekistan, for a two-day summit that would bring together the leaders of eight nations in a region where geopolitical tensions run high. The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation gathering, scheduled for September 15 and 16, 2022, carried particular weight this time: it would mark the first face-to-face conversation between Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping since they last met in Brasília in 2019, at a BRICS summit. The timing was fraught. India and China were locked in an escalating border dispute, and the world was watching to see how the two leaders would navigate their relationship in a multilateral setting.
Modi's visit to Uzbekistan would not be a simple attendance at a regional forum. According to reports, he was expected to hold bilateral meetings with several key figures on the summit's sidelines—most notably Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin. These one-on-one conversations, though unscheduled in the formal program, often carry as much diplomatic weight as the main event itself. The Indian Ambassador to Uzbekistan, Manish Prabhat, had confirmed that Modi would attend and participate in bilateral meetings with multiple leaders, though he cautioned that the specific schedule would be finalized closer to the event.
The SCO itself represents a particular kind of regional architecture. It traces its roots to 1996, when China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan formed the Shanghai Five as a mutual security agreement. Uzbekistan joined in 2001, and the organization expanded to its current eight-member structure in 2002 when India and Pakistan were admitted. This meant the summit would include not only the world's two most populous democracies and authoritarian powers, but also Pakistan—a nation with its own fraught history with India. The organization had not convened at the leadership level for two years, a gap created by the pandemic.
Pakistan's Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi were also expected to attend, making the gathering a complex intersection of regional powers with competing interests and alliances. For India, the summit represented both opportunity and constraint. Ambassador Prabhat had emphasized that economic cooperation would be a central theme—particularly discussions around connectivity initiatives that could deepen trade and investment flows between India and Central Asian nations. These were the conversations India hoped to advance as it prepared to assume the SCO chairmanship from Uzbekistan after this summit concluded.
The border tensions between India and China, however, hung over the proceedings. The two nations had clashed militarily in the Ladakh region in 2020, and the underlying territorial disputes remained unresolved. Modi and Xi would be meeting not as partners in a shared vision, but as leaders of countries in active disagreement. How they managed that conversation—whether they could compartmentalize the bilateral friction and engage constructively in the multilateral forum—would signal something about the future of regional stability. The summit, in other words, was not simply a gathering of allies. It was a test of whether competing powers could still find common ground on trade, security, and regional development, even as their own relationship deteriorated.
Citas Notables
Leaders of SCO member countries are meeting after two years due to the COVID pandemic. Some bilateral meetings will take place on the sidelines of the SCO but the programme of the meetings will be finalised in due course.— Indian Ambassador to Uzbekistan Manish Prabhat
Economic cooperation in the SCO is an important question, which will be discussed in the SCO meetings. When we are meeting with central Asian countries, we discuss connectivity which will promote trade, investment and other exchanges between Indian and central Asian countries.— Ambassador Manish Prabhat
La Conversación del Hearth Otra perspectiva de la historia
Why does this summit matter more than any other regional meeting Modi might attend?
Because it's the first time he's sitting across from Xi since their last formal meeting three years ago, and the context has changed entirely. There's active military tension now. The forum itself forces them into the same room.
But they're not meeting alone—there are six other countries there. Does that make the conversation easier or harder?
Harder, probably. You can't have a real argument in front of everyone. But you also can't pretend the problem doesn't exist. The bilateral meetings on the sidelines are where the actual work happens.
What does India actually want from this summit?
Two things. First, to show it can engage with China and Russia despite tensions—to prove it's not choosing sides in a larger conflict. Second, to use its upcoming chairmanship to push economic cooperation with Central Asia, which is where India sees real opportunity.
Is Pakistan's presence there a complication?
It's always a complication. India and Pakistan are both members, so they have to sit at the same table. But the SCO isn't really built to solve India-Pakistan problems. It's more about security and trade in the broader region.
What happens if Modi and Xi don't meet?
That would be a statement in itself—a sign the relationship has deteriorated beyond the point of even ceremonial engagement. The fact that they're expected to meet suggests both sides still see value in talking, even if they disagree on almost everything else.
And after this summit, India takes over as chair. What does that mean?
It means India gets to shape the agenda for the next year. It's a chance to steer the organization toward issues India cares about—connectivity, trade, development—rather than security issues where the members are more divided.