World leaders including Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi met Tuesday in a virtual summit of Eurasian leaders hosted by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The one-day online gathering of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) marks the first time that Putin has appeared on the world stage in an international summit since he diffused an armed rebellion by the Wagner mercenary group late last month -- widely seen as the most significant threat to his power the autocrat had faced.
The summit is expected to provide Putin with a stage to project an image of power, and reassure Moscow's partners -- and by extension the world -- that he remains firmly in control.
It is also an opportunity for the China and Russia-founded body to extend its reach -- with the expected inclusion of Iran to be finalized Tuesday alongside a step toward welcoming staunch Moscow ally Belarus -- the second expansion in the group's more than two decade history.
Modi in opening remarks praised the SCO as an "important platform for peace, prosperity and development in the entire Eurasia region."
"We do not see the SCO as an extended neighborhood, but an extended family. Security, economic development, connectivity, unity, respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, and environmental protection are the pillars of our vision for SCO," he said.
But this year's event is a toned down affair for the body, which also includes Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan and accounts for a sweeping portion of Eurasia and, with the inclusion of the world's two most populous countries, around 40% of the global population.
Last year's summit stretched over two in-person days in Samarkand, Uzbekistan that featured a number of sideline meetings between attending leaders.
India announced last month that its leaders' summit would be held virtually, without specifying why.
An online summit can cut time spent together -- and reduce the optics of solidarity between participants.
Both Moscow and Beijing view the group as an alternative to Western-led blocs and a key vehicle for their bid to push back against what it sees as a US-led world order.
But while many members may support a world with more dispersed global power, SCO contains an tangled web of interests and allegiances, which members must navigate as they aim to enhance regional security and cooperation more broadly.
In his address to the group, Chinese leader Xi stressed the need for unity and cooperation, and called for regional leaders to take charge of their own countries' futures -- in an apparent bid for them to resist outside influence in the region.
"The world today is full of chaos, and changes unseen in a century are accelerating. Human society is facing unprecedented challenges. Unity or division? Peace or Conflict? Cooperation or confrontation?" Xi said, calling instead for "win-win" cooperation.
"We need to strengthen strategic communication and coordination ... We must formulate foreign policies independently based on the overall and long-term interests of the region, and firmly hold the future and destiny of our country's development and progress in our own hands," he said, according to Chinese state news agency Xinhua.
Complex backdrop
Putin's on-going war in Ukraine casts a long shadow over the broadly Russia-friendly gathering, especially as China and India have been under pressure from the West to limit support for Moscow or even push Putin toward peace.
This year, host country India walks an especially thin line -- hosting the gathering days after being welcomed for a state visit in the US by President Joe Biden, who is keen to cultivate New Delhi as a partner in its growing competition with China.
A joint statement between Modi and Biden late last month saw the two express concern over the conflict in Ukraine and "coercive actions and rising tensions" in the India-Pacific region -- statements that did not directly name Russia or China, but appeared to point their way.
Putin and Modi spoke via phone last week, with the Indian leader "reiterating his call for dialogue and diplomacy," New Delhi said.
At last year's SCO summit, Modi told Putin in "today's era is not an era of war."
And India has its own friction with neighboring China.
Beijing remains deeply suspicious of a US Indo-Pacific security grouping known as the Quad of which India is a part, and the two nuclear-armed neighbors have a simmering conflict along a contested border, which has erupted into violence in recent years.
The group also brings together India and Pakistan -- another pairing of two nuclear-armed neighbors with a long history of fractious relations.
In May, Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari became the most senior-level official to visit India in seven years, when he joined a SCO foreign ministers meeting.
Iran's expected entry into the grouping comes after it signed a memorandum of obligations at last year's summit. Belarus, a close Russian partner, will take a similar step toward full membership this year, Modi said in his opening remarks.
Aspiring SCO member Belarus played a key role in navigating Putin's crisis, claiming to have brokered a deal allowing Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin to safely leave Russia for Belarus.
Pakistan and India were the most recent countries to join, gaining full membership in 2017. A number of other countries hold dialogue partner or observer status.
