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The most recent press and media coverage might suggest that these three “juggernauts” are getting too close for comfort but is that really the case. We take a look at what has changed since Trump brought in tariffs in April this year. That, the US stance on current wars, the Taiwan situation and the ongoing importation of Russian oil and gas by China, India and some European countries appears to have soured the US relationship with these three.

Their display of unity at the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO) summit in Tianjin was also a gesture of defiance towards Donald Trump and the West in general. For Xi and Putin, with their “no-limits friendship”, this is nothing new, but Modi’s participation was a direct consequence of Trump’s targeting and humiliation of India in recent weeks.

The US has slapped a 50 per cent tariff on Indian goods, accusing New Delhi of sustaining Putin’s war in Ukraine by importing Russian oil. Trump has also antagonised Modi by claiming to have negotiated the end to a brief armed conflict between India and Pakistan in May 2025 and hosting Pakistan’s military leader at the White House.

China’s Xi is extremely clever in engagement and managing how far that may go at any point in time. Whilst he has shown a close affinity with Modi when he introduced his Global Governance Initiative (GGI), calling for a fairer international order, Modi might well have wondered why this should not include a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council for India. But China has always refused to endorse such a move and there is no sign that Beijing is ready to embrace India’s rise as a major power or to view it as an equal partner in a “multipolar Asia.” Why should or why would he – China has spent the last thirty or so years building its “powerhouse” economy. He’s not about to cede any of that to India and they are two vastly diverse cultures. China’s economy, by a measure of GDP, is currently over four times the size of India’s.

Such differences do not mean that the display of unity in Tianjin is not significant because the symbolism itself is important as a gesture of solidarity as well as defiance. And the SCO is, like the BRICS, an expression of an emerging alternative to an international order dominated by the Western powers. In a sense, Trump and the USA, whilst still of significant importance in terms of trade and political sensitivity, are gradually being moved away from the close relationships that he purported to have. 

Xi has proposed that the SCO, which also includes Iran, Pakistan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, should establish a development bank. Brics has already started to build the financial and institutional plumbing to facilitate more use of currencies other than the US dollar and of alternative payment systems that are not affected by Western sanctions.

Another message from Modi’s huddle with Putin and Xi was a rejection of pressure from the US and the European Union to stop trading because of the war in Ukraine. India and China, in common with most of the Global South, regard Western sanctions, imposed unilaterally without UN approval, as illegitimate.

Trump’s foreign policy is accelerating the transformation of the global system as the old order imposed after the Second World War becomes unsustainable. Tianjin offered a glimpse of what might be coming in its place. 

So, what are the issues and potential conclusions that we can draw?

The obstacles are clear. The border dispute between India and China has remained unresolved since the 2020 clashes. Beijing’s close partnership with Pakistan — extending beyond economic corridors into military equipment and intelligence cooperation — further constrains how far ties can develop.

For investors, the stakes are significant. The SCO brings together economies representing nearly half the world’s population, central to energy and trade flows. With tariffs threatening supply chains and markets watching for signs of fragmentation, summits like these are closely watched for signals of new alignments, even if substantive outcomes are limited.

For India, the optics carry weight. Modi’s talks with Xi were interpreted as a reminder to Washington that India is willing to maintain dialogue with Beijing and Moscow while deepening ties with the U.S. and its allies. But New Delhi’s decision to skip the SCO military parade underscored the limits of any thaw.

“India is using this to opportunistically send a signal indirectly to Washington that it has strategic options, not only in Beijing but also in Moscow.”  Modi’s quick exit from the summit, immediately after arriving from Tokyo, also underlined India’s continued engagement with U.S. partners in Asia.

President Trump is accelerating the reordering of the international system, though not in the way he believes. Trump may think he is bending nations to his will, but history could record something else: the corrosion of America’s alliance and partnerships, the erosion of its credibility and the acceleration toward a truly multipolar world. By elevating disruption into his governing creed, Trump is unwittingly providing the very shock therapy the international system needs to break free from U.S. dominance. 

All of the above points towards an extension of the fragile state of our world as we know it. This will underscore the strength of gold and silver, both from a physical bullion perspective and undervalued mining exploration companies. 

Next week we will shine a focus on gold, its phenomenal run during calendar 2025 and what we might expect as we close out this year and look to 2026. “Gold - where from here and some interesting facts.” 

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