“No mountain or ocean can distance people who have shared aspirations,” China’s President Xi Jinping said in July 2024, addressing leaders from fellow Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) member states and a few other nations, in Astana, Kazakhstan.
At the time, the ancient Chinese saying in Xi’s speech seemed over the top and divorced from reality: Narendra Modi, prime minister of India, one of the SCO’s major members, was not even attending the grouping’s summit, citing a parliament session – an apparent snub to the bloc long driven by Beijing and Moscow.
