Emergence of India As The Leader of Global South

The 25th SCO Tianjin Summit, held in September 2025, is widely recognised as a pivotal moment marking the birth of the Global South as a consolidated force in world affairs, rather than a loosely defined set of developing countries. This summit assembled leaders from ten member states and seventeen dialogue partners, representing a broad arc of Asian, Eurasian, and emerging economies, to forge a common vision articulated through the landmark Tianjin Declaration.

India shaped the SCO Tianjin Summit’s multipolar narrative by asserting its identity as a constructive global leader and the foremost voice of the Global South, while simultaneously balancing firmness on security matters with emphasis on inclusive development and strategic autonomy. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s interventions were grounded in India’s long-standing policy of “Grow and Let Grow,” advocating sovereign equality, dialogue, and mutual benefit—principles that differentiate India from both China’s assertive approach and the West’s bloc-centric politics.

Security And Terrorism

India firmly spotlighted the Pahalgam terror attack, using the summit’s platform to call for coordinated efforts against terrorism and to challenge double standards often seen in global terror accountability, especially from Pakistan and some Western powers. The Tianjin Declaration incorporated India’s insistence on combating extremism, separatism, and transnational crime, strengthening its credibility as a security provider within the Global South framework and underscoring its commitment to rule-based order.

Connectivity And Sovereign Development

India leveraged the summit to advance alternative connectivity projects such as Chabahar Port and the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC), positioning these as regionally-inclusive and sovereignty-respecting options to China’s Belt and Road/CPEC vision. By ensuring that the Declaration included broader language on connectivity (with no direct mention of CPEC), India secured diplomatic space for its own initiatives, demonstrating its capacity to influence multilateral outcomes even when navigating a platform dominated by China and Russia.

Energy, Technology, And Norm-Setting

Through advocacy for renewable energy and green hydrogen—building on the International Solar Alliance—India steered the summit’s agenda beyond fossil fuels and showcased its leadership in climate action for the entire Global South. India’s contributions to global debates on digital infrastructure, fintech, and AI governance also reinforced the summit’s orientation toward a pluralistic future, with New Delhi positioned to anchor “responsible innovation” and safeguard open standards against monopolistic technological models.

Diplomacy And Strategic Autonomy

Among global powers, India has maintained the most independent posture, cultivating strategic partnerships with Central Asian states and engaging all SCO members while carefully avoiding subservience to either Washington or Beijing. India’s balanced diplomacy at Tianjin—emphasising inclusive growth, respect for sovereignty, and persistent norm-setting—underscored its centrality in the evolving multipolar order, even as it managed the complexities of border disputes and regional tensions.

India elevated its global leadership at the SCO Tianjin Summit through a nuanced blend of hard security advocacy and soft-power norm building, effectively shaping the narrative of multipolarity as not merely a distribution of power, but a commitment to inclusive governance, responsible connectivity, and developmental cooperation for the Global South.

Summary

The summit marked a major shift from previous meetings by explicitly positioning the SCO as the nucleus for Global South cooperation and governance reform. President Xi Jinping and other participants openly challenged the Western-dominated order, highlighting the instability and crisis facing current multilateral structures and projecting the SCO as the standard-bearer for a multipolar world led by the Global South. The Tianjin Declaration laid out criticism of protectionist policies, unilateral sanctions, and double standards, affirming the desire for a just, inclusive global environment that respects sovereignty, sovereign equality, and consensus-led decision making.

Among the summit’s most significant outcomes was the adoption of a 10-year SCO Development Strategy, charting a roadmap for cooperation in security, trade, technology, energy, climate, and digital governance until 2035.

The creation of an SCO Development Bank was approved to augment infrastructure, drive sustainable growth, and support development across member states. Four new centres for security, anti-crime, cybersecurity, and anti-drug initiatives were established. Laos was granted SCO partner status as part of structural reforms which merged observer states and dialogue partners, bringing the organisation to a 27-nation family.

Implications

By consolidating the voice and agency of the Global South, the SCO Tianjin Summit threw into relief the deepening rift between Western-led systems and non-Western multilateral initiatives. The summit’s outcomes are expected to accelerate efforts by emerging economies to seek development paths and security arrangements independent of old power structures, making the Global South a powerful thematic and organisational presence in shaping the future world order.

IDN (With Agency Inputs)