The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Tianjin did not deliver diplomatic fireworks; it delivered infrastructure, the policy and institutional scaffolding for cooperation over the next decade. Leaders approved the Tianjin Declaration and a 2026-2035 development strategy, alongside sectoral statements on the digital economy, artificial intelligence, green industry, energy and trade. 

For India, these are not abstract communiques. They open practical lanes to ring-fence cooperation from border disputes while translating multilateral language into domestic employment and growth. 

Beijing’s headline bid, an SCO development bank, matters because it signals patient institution-building rather than one-off project announcements. Reporting from global and regional outlets converges on the agreement to move forward with a bank and related financing tools that can underwrite energy, green industry and digital projects across the bloc. If India chooses to shape the bank’s governance and procurement rules early, this could become an engine for job-rich projects on Indian soil. 

Artificial intelligence was another notable thread. The Tianjin text and official readouts referenced an AI cooperation programme, building on work completed at Chengdu in June, which focuses on capacity-building, safety evaluation, and standards. India championed equal rights to develop and use AI, a theme that aligns well with our domestic skilling priorities and the employability challenge facing millions of young Indians 

Bilateral Thaw 

The SCO platform becomes economically meaningful for India only if the bilateral relationship with China is normalised. In recent weeks, Delhi and Beijing have moved on precisely that: tourist visas for Chinese citizens have resumed after five years, officials have agreed to restart direct flights, and governments have signalled reopening of the three border trade points, Lipulekh, Shipki-La and Nathu-La, while also resuming the Kailash-Manasarovar Yatra in a limited format. These are not symbolic gestures. Mobility and border trade are economic oxygen for MSMEs, tourism, higher education, logistics and hospitality. 

The politics around security will not disappear. Prime Minister Narendra Modi used the Tianjin stage to reiterate India’s stance on terrorism and double standards in counterterror narratives, language that tracks consistently with New Delhi’s position since 2016 and reassures domestic audiences that normalisation is not accommodation. That clarity is useful: it allows room for targeted cooperation without misreading red lines. 

Actionable Planks

Beneath the summitry, three actionable planks from Tianjin align with India’s job and growth priorities.

Finance and risk-sharing: The development bank proposal and associated mechanisms (local currency settlements, a banking consortium) could reduce project risk and FX exposure for cross-border supply chains, if India can integrate transparency, open procurement, and security vetting into the design. 

Technology and human capital: The AI cooperation language and digital economy statements create a multilateral umbrella under which India can pursue fellowships, standards work, and safety testing that translate into jobs across data operations, model evaluation, and SME digitisation. 

Green and energy transitions: Statements on green industry and sustainable energy, paired with the 10-year strategy, open up opportunities for component manufacturing, grid equipment, and battery recycling, where Indian states are already competing for investment. 

These documents do not solve the boundary question. But they do lower the transaction costs of practical cooperation “rapprochement by arithmetic,” as I argued in a pre-summit op-ed for China Daily. 

Three-track Plan 

Track 1: Normalise and ensure mobility (quick wins, service-sector jobs). Lock in a 12-month timetable, jointly announced through SCO working groups, for:

Air connectivity: Restore at least 10 city pairs (DEL/BLR/BOM ↔ Beijing/Shanghai/Guangzhou/Chengdu/Shenzhen), phased over four quarters with a predictable capacity ramp so that airlines can hire and station crews. Couple this with customs/immigration fast lanes for student cohorts and business delegations.

Visas: Maintain the resumed tourist visa regime for Chinese nationals and add a 180-day multi-entry business visa with a fast lane for exporters and university MoUs. Indian students and researchers should receive reciprocal clarity on Chinese visa categories and processing times. 

Border trade SOPs: Publish digital manifests and standard operating procedures for Lipulekh, Shipki-La, and Nathu-La, so that state governments and border communities can plan their inventory and transportation. Mandate grievance redress timelines that keep traders and banks engaged. 

Pilgrimage logistics: For the Kailash-Manasarovar Yatra, commit to a transparent lottery system, clear insurance requirements, well-defined evacuation protocols, and established telemedicine tie-ups so that tour operators can hire with confidence. 

This matters immensely because aviation, hospitality, tour operations, education services, and logistics together employ hundreds of thousands. Every restored frequency and visa fast lane translates into downstream hiring; cabin crew, ground handlers, hotel staff, tour operators, visa facilitation desks, and campus counsellors.

Track 2: Green manufacturing for Indian payrolls (medium-term, high multipliers). Use Tianjin’s green/energy pillars to launch two “Twin Green Parks” in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu:

Product scope: Solar glass and frames; inverters and grid-balancing equipment; EV sub-assemblies; battery recycling; high-efficiency motors and pumps for agriculture.

Capital safeguards: All investments fall under India’s Press Note 3 (government-route FDI from land-border countries). Add vendor-risk audits for critical gear, data-localisation for any telemetry, and export-control compliance protocols.

Local value-addition: Start at a realistic 30-40% and ramp up with time-bound tech-transfer clauses.

Skills: Tie the parks to ITIs and polytechnics with paid apprenticeships co-funded by a new SCO Skills Challenge Fund seeded by the proposed development bank. 

This matters because component manufacturing is where job multipliers live: machining, quality control, logistics, maintenance and industrial services. If procurement is transparent and security-screened, India captures jobs while maintaining strategic autonomy.

Track 3: AI & data for employability (short-cycle skills to first jobs). Stand up an India-SCO AI Skills & Standards Fellowship (1,000 seats/year) anchored by three deliverables:

Safety & evaluation labs at select Indian campuses to implement SCO AI roadmap test protocols and publish open benchmarks.

Indic-Mandarin multilingual corpora for public-interest tasks (agri extension, health helplines, skilling platforms) released under permissive licenses.

SME adoption vouchers that co-fund AI pilots in manufacturing, tourism, and logistics in tier-2 and tier-3 cities.

Awardees receive a bilingual micro-credential designed with Indian industry bodies to pipe graduates straight into entry-level roles in data ops, evaluation engineering and applied ML. This aligns Tianjin’s cooperation language with India’s skilling imperative. 

Guardrails for Action

Security by design: Keep Press Note 3 as the default filter for China-origin capital and vendors. Apply data localisation where appropriate and perform vendor-risk audits for critical equipment and software used in grid/telecom/transport.

Transparency & reciprocity: Insist on open competitive procurement in bank-financed projects; pair any market-access asks with Indian priorities (APIs, speciality chemicals, electronics components).

Granular metrics: Publish monthly dashboards: flights restored and load factors, visas issued, border-trade tonnage, park-level job creation, fellowship placement rates, and the share of local-currency settlements in trade to manage FX risk without undermining RBI prudence. 

Clarity on Red Lines

Delhi will need to continue saying two things at once and mean both. First is security clarity. Peaceful borders and zero tolerance for terror remain non-negotiable. PM Modi’s messaging at Tianjin did just that, keeping public opinion and coalition politics aligned. Second is economic confidence. Job-creating cooperation that does not mortgage autonomy is not capitulation. It is statecraft. That is why the mobility-manufacturing-skills triad is sensible. It produces measurable gains for young job-seekers without trading on security down-payments.

Potential Spoilers

Border incidents: This is the most obvious spoiler. A pre-agreed no-surprises communications protocol and de-escalation ladder, quietly built into the mobility plan, can reduce the risk that a tactical crisis freezes flights or visas.

Over-financialization: A new development bank is only as good as its procurement and safeguards. India should press for open data rooms, beneficial-ownership disclosures, and independent audits before signing the first cheque. 

Standards divergence in AI: Avoid a brittle “two systems” world. India can be the bridge player, engaging in SCO standards discussions while keeping interoperability with global frameworks. The equal rights to develop AI principle India supported, is a good foundation to argue for open tools and shared testbeds.

Making Tianjin Tangible

The SCO’s language on UN-centric multilateralism, Global South representation and inclusive development is precisely the narrative cover India needs to advance low-politics, high-utility cooperation with China without spooking other partners. A decade-long strategy and a bank are not magic wands; they are policy containers. If India fills those containers with Indian jobs, in aviation, hospitality, component manufacturing, data work, and SME digitisation, while keeping sovereignty guardrails intact, Tianjin will look less like a photo-op and more like a turning point. 

The debate in Delhi will inevitably ask whether engagement through the SCO dilutes India’s other partnerships or rewards China without resolving the frontier. That binary misses the point. The right question is: can we turn multilateral statements into Indian payrolls while holding our security lines? The answer is yes, if we focus on execution.

Over the next twelve months, the Modi government can make Tianjin tangible by delivering five items:

- Restore 10 direct city-pairs and publish quarterly schedules. 

- Issue a joint SOP for Lipulekh–Shipki-La–Nathu-La with digital manifests and grievance timelines. 

- Launch two Twin Green Parks with PN3 screening, 30-40% value-add floors and apprenticeship pipelines.

- Fund 1,000 AI fellowships tied to the SCO roadmap testbeds and publish open multilingual corpora. 

- Table India’s procurement and transparency template for the proposed SCO bank and secure an India Window for MSME supply-chain projects. 

None of these requires illusions about the boundary. They require administrative focus and political clarity. That is why Tianjin could yet prove consequential: it supplied columns and rows. We now have to do the math.

(The author, a journalist-turned-interdisciplinary academic with over 18 years of experience in broadcast and digital media and research across Asia and Europe, is a Ph.D. scholar at Hong Kong Baptist University who is currently in China. Views expressed are personal. He can be reached at arjunchatt@gmail.com/ WeChat: ARJUN13717687208/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/arjun-c-276a8065/).