The recently concluded Shanghai Corporation Organization Summit in Islamabad, Pakistan, and the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, has captured the attention of the world’s geopolitical pundits, and herald a titanic shift in global power dynamics, international alliances, and economic policies.
These high-level meetings underscore China and Russia’s growing influence not only in Eurasia and Central Asia but across all continents. The increasing collaboration and partnership between countries through these multilateral organizations presents an alternative framework to the traditional UN system, and a platform for nations to collectively address political, social, economic and security issues on the global level.
Pakistan accomplished a noteworthy diplomatic milestone by successfully hosting the SCO Summit, reaffirming its strategic relevance in South Asia and Eurasia. The presence of leaders from all 10 SCO member states, including India’s Foreign Minister, S. Jaishankar, marked a historic moment. It was the first visit of an Indian foreign minister to Pakistan in nearly nine years, demonstrating SCO’s potential to bridge gaps between the neighboring South Asian arch-rivals.
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin’s participation at the SCO summit in Pakistan and the subsequent talks with his Pakistani counterpart has strengthened Pakistan’s case for joining BRICS, which will help in integrating the country into the emerging multipolar world order that BRICS champions.
Meanwhile, the 16th BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia, presented itself as a counterweight to the West-led world politics and trade. The conference saw key world leaders from across the continents united under one banner, including Russia’s Vladimir Putin, China’s Xi Jinping, India’s Narendra Modi, South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa, and Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, to discuss the future of global governance. The inclusion of new BRICS members, such as Egypt, Iran, Ethiopia, and the UAE, hinted at the bloc’s growing clout in the Middle East and Africa. The summit reinforced BRICS’ commitment to promoting a multipolar world, offering an alternative to Western-dominated institutions and alliances. The prime objective proposed by Putin at the conference was the de-dollarization of world trade and the introduction of new payment methods via commercial banks linked to each other through the central BRICS Banks.
Both the SCO and BRICS are crucial platforms to challenge the dominance of Western-centric alliances like QUAD, AUKUS, NATO, and the G7. Each year, these organizations grow in strength and role, offering nations around the globe a vision of a fairer and more balanced world order. Recent summits have illustrated that China and Russia are emerging as key powers in world politics, particularly in Eurasia, Central Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia. These regions have historically played a central role in altering global political quagmires due to their strategic importance, abundance of natural resources and untapped economic potential, and their alignment and support will be key for any future world order.
The SCO and BRICS are crucial for China to expand its role across Asia, Europe and Central Asia. China aims to achieve its strategic goals through infrastructure development, trade partnerships and investment initiatives in these regions, as opposed to the Western jingoistic schemes for dominance in world politics. These platforms are offering a helping hand to China in shaping a new global economic and geopolitical framework, which will be fairer than the incumbent order. Russia, on the other hand, sees the SCO as an indispensable organ for enhancing its security arrangements in Central Asia, especially in the wake of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and the ongoing Ukraine fiasco. Moscow continues to prioritize counterterrorism and security cooperation within the SCO, which will ensure that Central Asia remains within its sphere of influence and that NATO’s menacing influence in the region is curtailed.
As the world is in the transition phase towards a multipolar order, the relevance of SCO and BRICS is growing more than ever. These forums offer a robust counterbalance to the Western alliances, embodying the thirst for a more equitable world. Through economic sovereignty, political realignment, and sustainable development, China and Russia are spearheading the creation of a new global order.
The world currently faces a plethora of Western-produced challenges, from the humanitarian crises in Palestine and Lebanon to the various trade disruptions caused by Western sanctions on countries pursuing independent foreign policies. Moreover, the threat of nuclear escalation and the global instability caused by unjust Western sanctions, remain key concerns for the Third-World countries. However, BRICS and SCO offer hope for the nations of Eurasia and South Asia to assert their role in international politics, providing more economic opportunities, robust trade and investment systems, and deeper regional connectivity.
The SCO and BRICS summits reflect a clear shift in the trajectory of world politics towards a multipolar global order in which China and Russia play pivotal roles. By creating parallel financial systems to the incumbent methods, securing energy independence and ensuring regional stability, these countries present a formidable challenge to Western dominance. As Pakistan reaffirmed its ties with the SCO in the recent summit, future talks will likely focus on deepening economic integration and enhancing security collaboration.
As the SCO and BRICS are natural companions with almost identical ideological inclinations and world views, they should try to share more common goals and put efforts into achieving them collectively. While BRICS is primarily interested in challenging the West’s dominance in finance and trade, SCO is focused on security and regional stability. As sister organizations, SCO and BRICS should forge a way to help each other achieve their shared goals. Only through cooperation and support, these organizations can pose serious challenges to the dominance of the West-led alliances like NATO, AUKUS, QUAD, and G-7.
It is also crucial to understand that some world powers have launched campaigns to preserve the Western-led world order, seeking to consolidate benefits for the few developed countries of the West. A rather naïve and misleading propaganda peddled by some sections of the Western media, that the West and the USA’s dominance in world politics has ended, also adds to the ambiguity in the world political landscape. If left unchecked and unaddressed, those tendencies have the capacity to undermine the collaborative efforts that SCO and BRICS advocate, and may also help in the continuation of these hegemonic powers’ sway over world politics and trade.
In order to be regarded as a trusted and respected organization at the world level, the SCO must keep a respectable distance from the pitfalls of Western alliances that underlie conceit, self-proclaimed superiority, and inflexible approach to geopolitics. Instead, the SCO has to epitomize mutual cooperation in trade, geopolitics, and other aspects of international relations, which will benefit not only its member countries but the whole world.
As the world is in the transition phase towards a multipolar order, the relevance of SCO and BRICS is growing more than ever. These forums offer a robust counterbalance to the Western alliances, embodying the thirst for a more equitable world. Through economic sovereignty, political realignment, and sustainable development, China and Russia are spearheading the creation of a new global order.
The author is a freelance columnist affiliated with an Islamabad-based think tank. He posts on X under the handle @tehzeeb_says.
