Narendra Modi met Vladimir Putin at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Kyrgyzstan, where he stated that the Ukraine war must end for humanity's sake. Xi Jinping also attended the gathering of leaders from China, Russia, and India. Reports from Reuters confirm the attendance and statements while Al Jazeera reports remain unverified.
Modi's appeal at the SCO summit injects Global South diplomacy into the Ukraine conflict and highlights an emerging multipolar order prioritizing negotiated settlements.
“Humanitarian imperatives and de-escalation over NATO-centric or zero-sum security logic”
Conservative
Modi's direct diplomacy reflects pragmatic realism and strategic autonomy, favoring India's national interests over alignment with Western sanctions.
“Multipolar arrangements as overdue correction to post-Cold War U.S. dominance”
Libertarian
Modi's call underscores individual costs of state-driven conflict while the SCO setting illustrates great-power balancing that often preserves state authority over open trade.
“Skepticism toward foreign entanglements and expanded commitments without taxpayer consent”
Devil's Advocate
All perspectives adopt Reuters framing of the SCO as a coherent anti-U.S. project and overlook the thin record of Modi's rhetoric, which lacks references to withdrawal or territorial integrity.
“Groupthink on multipolarity and failure to note material support for Russia's war economy or absence of concrete negotiation terms”