It began with silence. Not the silence of hesitation, but the silence of awe. When Prime Minister Narendra Modi walked into the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit hall, it was not just another leader entering. It was India stepping into the room with the authority of a civilizational power. Some others may have had bigger economies or sharper militaries, but they did not carry what PM Modi carried: the moral weight of a billion-strong democracy and the courage to speak uncomfortable truths.
“Terrorism is not only a threat to the security of individual nations, but a shared challenge to all of humanity. That is why India has consistently stressed the importance of unity in the fight against terrorism,” Prime Minister Modi thundered. And in that instant, PM Modi was not just addressing the SCO, he was reminding the world that India will never allow terror to be normalised, glamorised, or excused.
When Modi turned SCO into India’s stage
The SCO has long been dismissed as a China-Russia club. Yet, PM Modi changed the script. He turned it into a stage where India’s voice became the conscience of Asia.
PM Modi spoke of the cancer that destroys all of it — terrorism. He cut through the jargon, exposing the hypocrisy of countries that condemn terror in theory while financing and sheltering it in practice. Without naming Pakistan, he reduced its credibility to rubble.
PM Modi does not mince words. He makes diplomacy look less like endless dialogue and more like an uncompromising defense of dharma. That is his hallmark.
Modi doctrine: Exploring the unexplored
If one phrase defines PM Modi’s foreign policy, it is this: exploring the unexplored.
Where others see deadlocks, PM Modi sees opportunities. Where others hesitate, PM Modi steps forward. Who imagined that India would be the fulcrum of both the Indo-Pacific Quad and the Eurasian SCO? Who would have thought that, even as its ties with Washington face turbulence, India could still sit across from Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin without flinching? PM Modi did. He redefined the rules.
And beyond great power rivalries, PM Modi has positioned India as the authentic voice of the Global South — the bridge between developing nations and the world’s power centres.
At the SCO, he demonstrated this philosophy again. He balanced contradictions with confidence. He reminded Xi that border tensions cannot erase dialogue. He reassured Russia that India is a dependable partner. He told Central Asia that India is their gateway to stability and growth. And he told Pakistan — without even dignifying it by name — that India will define the terms of engagement, not them.
Terrorism: Modi’s red line
Every time PM Modi takes the world stage, terrorism becomes more than a talking point. It becomes a moral ultimatum. Unlike Western leaders, who often use counter-terror rhetoric selectively, PM Modi makes it universal. For him, terror is not about geography, it is about humanity.
By anchoring SCO’s agenda around terrorism, PM Modi forced China to acknowledge what it often brushes aside. Beijing, which used to prop up Pakistan, cannot deny the threat of Uighur radicalism within Xinjiang. Even Central Asian countries know how terrorism lurks at their borders. By welding India’s national wounds into a collective warning, PM Modi ensured that no one in that hall could hide behind silence.
That is PM Modi’s genius. He transforms India’s fight into the world’s fight.
Modi’s balancing act
No Indian leader in recent history has managed contradictions the way PM Modi has. On one hand, China stares across the Line of Actual Control, unrelenting after Galwan. On the other, Washington, despite calling India its “strategic partner,” often needles New Delhi with trade barriers. For most leaders, these crosswinds would mean paralysis. For PM Modi, they are opportunities.
By engaging Xi Jinping at the SCO, PM Modi was not endorsing Beijing — he was signaling to Washington that India will not be taken for granted. At a time when the US-India economic ties face friction over tariffs, tech supply chains, and protectionist impulses, PM Modi reminded the West that New Delhi has options: If the US sees India only through a transactional lens, India will expand its diplomatic horizon with Eurasia.
This is not hedging, it is strategic assertion. PM Modi is making it clear: India will cooperate with America where interests align, but it will not chain itself to Washington’s economic mood swings. Nor will it ignore Beijing just because the West wishes so.
This is the genius of PM Modi’s foreign policy. He can lead the Quad with Japan, Australia, and the US in the Indo-Pacific, while also shaking hands with Xi and Putin in Eurasia. He can deepen defense pacts with Washington while simultaneously opening corridors to Central Asia. Modi’s India is no one’s camp follower, it is a pole in its own right.
Why Modi towers at home and abroad
For Indians, PM Modi’s SCO performance was not abstract diplomacy. It was personal reassurance. It told every family that lost a soldier in Pulwama, every mother who lit a pyre in Kargil, every child who grew up in the shadow of terror that their Prime Minister carries their voice to the world stage. He does not bow, dilute, or trade away their sacrifices.
And for the world, PM Modi has become the rare leader who speaks with conviction. In an era where leaders hide behind scripted lines, PM Modi’s bluntness is refreshing.
India roars, world listens
When the SCO summit closed, handshakes and speeches blurred into routine. But PM Modi’s words did not fade. They lingered like a drumbeat in the conscience of the room.
In that moment, PM Modi had done more than speak, he had set the agenda. He reminded Pakistan that terror is a dead-end. He reminded China that border disputes cannot erase dialogue. He reminded Central Asia that India is the partner of stability. And he reminded the world that India is no longer a participant, it has become a leader.
This is what makes PM Modi different. He does not just follow the map, he redraws it. Exploring the unexplored is the hallmark of PM Modi’s foreign policy, and at the SCO he proved it once again.
The silence that greeted his entry had transformed into something greater: the roar of a civilisational power, led by a man who makes terror tremble and diplomacy dignified.
(The writer is a senior multimedia journalist)