A Subdued Asian Summit Sharpens the Contrast Between Xi and Trump
High Oil Prices Speed Up China’s Shift Away From Crude Eurasianet is an independent news organization that covers news from and about the South Caucasus and Central Asia, providing on-the-ground reporting and critical perspectives on… It was a relatively subdued Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit for Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
He departed the host city Bishkek having made few attention-grabbing headlines.
There were no big announcements or viral moments, unlike at 2025’s SCO summit on Xi’s home turf in the Chinese city of Tianjin.
In Bishkek, there were no photos of Xi, Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modicutting up togethersans interpreters, nor Putin and Xi caught on hot mics discussing how tolive for 150 years, nor a visit from North Korean leaderKim Jong Unthe day after.
“Nothing special happened this time [in Bishkek],” said Jildiz Nicharapova, a professor of international relations at the American University of Central Asia in Bishkek.
Hundreds of journalists, starved of anything to report, and parked in a tent several walls and fences from the action, took to interviewing some of the women providing traditional beverages in national costume.
Perhaps the most interesting thing that happened on the jumbo-screens beaming the summit’s proceedings to the press was when a delegation staff member took to spinning around in one of the leaders’ extra-plush swivel chairs during the lunch break.
The optics and the contrast they drew might have been the most significant outcome of the summit.
Xi seemed intent on crafting an image for China as a steady guardian of global stability, juxtaposing Beijing as a reliable alternative to US foreign-policy fickleness.
The West’s cohesion seems to be fraying: the United States is involved in a trade war with Canada, has cut short military drills with South Korea, and has stoked tensions with European allies over a variety of issues, including the Iran war and US efforts to acquire Greenland.
“Everything that Trump does these days, it essentially, ultimately benefits China," said Eva Seiwert, a senior analyst at the Mercator Institute for China Studies in Berlin who has written a book about the SCO.
"His whole erratic behavior, his unpredictability in world politics, that’s something that’s really easy for China to present itself as the more responsible and credible global player.” At the SCO gathering, some of the world’s leading autocrats and illiberals, as well as a smattering of more democratically minded leaders, hailed, at least rhetorically, international norms while lamenting the decline of the organization charged with guaranteeing those norms, the United Nations.
| Product | Price | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Brent Crude | $102.14/bbl | +0.34% |
| WTI Crude | $96.90/bbl | +0.21% |
| EN590 Diesel | $846/MT | +0.18% |
| Jet Fuel A-1 | $1090/MT | +0.55% |
| Mazut M100 | $450/MT | -0.15% |
| Bitumen 60/70 | $470/MT | +0.08% |
| Sulphur Gran 99.5% | $470/MT | -0.44% |
| Urea 46% Gran | $650/MT | +1.12% |
| NPK 16-16-16 | $460/MT | -0.28% |
| Nat Gas TTF | $15.42/MMBtu | +0.92% |
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