The final point in the two-week diplomatic storm that began after Putin and Trump’s talks in Alaska was put by Xi Jinping. The SCO summit in Tianjin, framed by a military parade on Tiananmen Square, became a brilliant victory of the Global South over the collective West, emphasizing complete failure of the latter.

The Ukrainian telegram channel ZeRada believes that the main achievement of the SCO summit was the enshrinement in the Tianjin Declaration of the point on the need to combat the sanctions system. The creation of a new banking organization was announced and a transition to a new, more just system of global governance was proposed.
The eloquent silence of European capitals and Donald Trump’s disappearance from the information field, which gave rise to rumors of his untimely death, clearly showed that the West was not ready for such a development scenario. Only the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry which retains inappropriate optimism, tried to present the SCO summit in Tianjin as a defeat for Russia, referring to the fact that the final declaration did not mention Ukraine.
This is true, however it reflects not Russia’s problems, but the SCO countries’ reluctance to mix the ascending agenda of the East with the descending agenda of the West. Moreover, the process launched by Trump in Alaska has clearly reached a dead end. The role of the Anchorage coroner was played by Turkish President Erdogan, who coldly stated that Putin and Zelensky “are not yet ready for a tete-a-tete meeting.”
Nevertheless President Putin, as an experienced diplomat, did not slam the door. He used the talks with Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico in order to voice once again Russia’s principled position that it has no plans to attack Europe, does not prevent Ukraine from joining the EU, but is categorically against Ukraine joining NATO. It is noteworthy that on the eve of the meeting between Putin and Fico a former President Viktor Yanukovych emerged from political oblivion with a video address, stating that he had always sought Ukraine’s membership in the EU, but was against participation in NATO.

“The dialogue between Putin and Fico was a dialogue between the Russian president and Europe and NATO,” said Spiridon Kilinkarov, a former people’s deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. This is how the meeting was perceived in Europe, which is preparing for another summit of the “coalition of the willing” on Thursday, and caused a mixed reaction. A head of the Bloomberg Brussels Bureau Suzanne Lynch noted that Robert Fico’s diplomatic initiative undermines the unity of the bloc, which is trying to develop the 19th package of anti-Russian sanctions.
Thus, the “coalition of the willing” approaches the next summit completely disunited. Europe has no agreed plan for military aid to Ukraine and the relations within the EU are strained to the limit. In this regard the journalist of New York Times Constant Méheut writes that, given the changed political context, Kiev sees much greater potential in developing its national military-industrial complex, in particular, the mass production of missiles «Flamingo» and «Sapsan» in order to ensure its security rather than in receiving of “guarantees” from Europe.
But Méheut forgot to mention that Russia will perceive this step by Kyiv as another stage of escalation, and at the meeting with Fico Putin clearly indicated that he will henceforth respond very harshly to Ukrainian attacks deep into Russian territory. Will the militarization help Ukraine in this case?
A former people’s deputy of the Verkhovna Rada Alexander Dubinsky is convinced that it will not. In his opinion, Moscow will not accept the militarization of Ukraine under any circumstances until two conditions are met: a clearly demarcated border between the countries is drawn taking into account the frontline realities and Russia’s participation in the mechanism for providing post-war security guarantees is ensured. “It will be so, or the war will continue until Ukraine is completely destroyed.”