India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi traveled to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, held August 31–September 1 in Tianjin, China, with two major objectives. He succeeded at least in leaving Tianjin with a series of photo opportunities asserting India’s “strategic autonomy” doctrine. Trump’s outbursts and shifting opticsThe summit, however, where Modi met with Putin and Xi, was the kind of showy performance that US President Donald Trump understands. Modi took Putin by the hand and huddled with Xi and Putin for photos. For all the theater and photo ops in Tianjin, the SCO for the foreseeable future is likely to remain mostly puffery and pretense.