At a time when divisions are being displayed in Europe and the United States, meetings are multiplying without any real results, in Tianjin and Beijing, the leaders of Russia and the main Asian countries are giving a completely different image of the world. The meeting of the states belonging to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, including China, Russia, India, Pakistan and Iran, was an opportunity to deliver messages of peace and fruitful collaboration between the members in complete contradiction with the prevailing climate among Western countries, largely due to the aggressive economic measures announced and sometimes implemented by Washington.
These meetings were first of all an opportunity for Beijing, and this is not the least of the paradoxes, to publicly affirm its attachment to the market economy and liberalism. Reforms aimed at deepening the role of the market in the allocation of resources to factors of production will be pursued, as will those to allow the mode of price formation to reflect market conditions. At the international level, trade relations must be based on the search for "win-win" agreements and not zero-sum agreements where there is only one winner and one loser.
Reforms will therefore continue to be undertaken in China to remove institutional obstacles to the implementation of this liberalization policy. Resources will be allocated to technological development, research into remedies to environmental problems and the training of young people in high-level schools where the quality of the teaching world will also be raised. This was the message delivered by the Chinese authorities to the participants of the SCO summit. It was accompanied by a declaration in favour of peace and the establishment of good relations, bearing in mind that in the past there had been many deep disagreements and even conflicts between the members.
A very positive speech was also given regarding the contribution of good relations between the countries concerned to their development. The bilateral discussions between the Chinese president and the heads of state present concretely illustrated the willingness of all these countries to deepen their collaboration through investment programs in research, infrastructure and energy, among others.
China and Russia have signed some twenty cooperation agreements in various fields such as aeronautics, artificial intelligence, agriculture, research and health. These include the increase of 6 billion m3 per year in natural gas deliveries through the pipeline through Siberia and the decision to build the second Siberian Power 2 pipeline, of nearly 9000 kilometers connecting the Yamal fields to central China via Mongolia. It will be able to transport 50 billion m3 per year at an estimated cost of 14 billion dollars. The project had been under discussion for a long time and had not come to fruition due to the difficulty of reaching an agreement on the price of gas.
To reduce its dependence on coal, China had sharply increased its gas consumption, from 41 to 440 billion m3 between 2004 and 2024. The country, which did not have sufficient resources, had benefited both from the increase in world production with the exploitation of shale gas deposits and from new transport possibilities thanks to liquefaction. This is why the country had long hesitated to conclude an agreement on this second gas pipeline. For its part, Moscow had found customers in Europe with Germany willing to pay a good price and had not considered it worthwhile to make concessions. Europe's new import needs for considerable volumes made the Chinese market less attractive. Everything changed after the invasion of Ukraine and the sanctions against Russia. At the same time, the loss of these traditional customers forced Moscow to be less demanding on its prices, which made it possible to reopen the discussion and perhaps reach a final agreement.
The talks came at a time when India was being hit by the White House with 50 percent tariffs on its exports precisely because the country was not complying with sanctions against Moscow by increasing its purchases of natural gas. The country is part of the SCO and its Prime Minister Nodi was in Tianjin. A meeting with Chinese leaders confirmed the restoration of trusting relations and joint development projects between the two countries, which had been marked by deep disagreement over border issues over the past five years.
The conclusion of these political and economic agreements between these three great powers, representing nearly a third of the world's population, testified to the marginalization of the White House. His action to reduce Russian revenues from his fossil fuel exports proved ineffective since on the one hand he imposed sanctions on India, accused of not respecting them, but he did not react to China, which was dramatically increasing its purchases from Russia.
Finally, after establishing better relations with India, the Chinese president met with the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Shehbaz Sharif, and announced the strengthening of his investment projects in the country with the Belt and Road Belt program concerning the Corridor linking southern China to the Indian Ocean, the development of an Economic Corridor 2.0 and the expansion of the free trade agreement between the two countries.
The meetings in Tianjin show China's growing economic importance and political influence in the region. But they also have a global dimension since the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, participated in them and at no time was the Ukrainian issue mentioned. On the contrary, the principle of compliance with international rules was confirmed in the presence of the Russian president, which clearly meant that for the participating countries the invasion of Ukraine did not constitute a violation of these rules and that the sanctions adopted were without legitimacy, as evidenced by the agreements between China and Russia on natural gas announced in Tianjin.
The world is therefore cut in two. On the one hand, the Western countries were seeking, by isolating Moscow and imposing sanctions, to force Russia to stop its aggression. On the other hand, the countries meeting in the framework of the SCO confirmed their willingness to develop their relations without taking into account the situation in Europe and Washington's unsuccessful attempts to reach an agreement to end the war in Ukraine. The presence of the UN Secretary-General in Tianjin was implicit in support of the vision of the SCO members.
Europe must recognise this new reality and become aware of its isolation. The failure of the White House's attempts was predictable because, beyond the staging of the meetings in Alaska, was there a real will to succeed? We can doubt it when we see that at the same time India, a minor partner, was sanctioned but that China, which was going to contribute much more to the increase in Russian revenues, was not even the subject of a comment.
The main lesson of the events in China this week is not the demonstration of power by the Chinese army in Tiananmen Square, but the upheaval in international political and economic relations that emerged during the discussions between the various heads of State present.