From Tianjin, a gathering unfolds with the language of consensus and cooperation, hosted by China and spanning a wide circle of nations. Core members such as India, Russia, Belarus, Iran, Pakistan, and several Central Asian states mingle with guests including Erdoğan and Guterres. The dialogue centers on building a development plan and fostering collaboration, a reminder that power seeks steadiness and dialogue beyond old blocs. Yet observers sense the room is more about signaling than sealing sweeping agreements, a space where tensions among diverse regimes are managed rather than resolved. Analysts remind us that the SCO may not resemble a NATO or EU, but rather serves to ease frictions among authoritarian partners and carve out room to maneuver as others act within their influence spheres. Modi’s Tianjin visit hints at a cautious thaw with China, while Putin’s red carpet marks Moscow’s alignment with Beijing, tied to energy and technology, with a Xi–Putin meeting planned and a Beijing parade on the horizon; Kim Jong Un’s presence underscores the gravity of power gathered in this constellation.

But let us read this moment through the living breath of the Earth. Behind the gilded doors, the bones of empire and the drumbeat of extraction drum on—oil, gas, coal, and the hungry appetite of growth at any cost. The smile of diplomacy often masks a system that prizes stability for the powerful over justice for the vulnerable, that shields autocratic silence while promising progress. Democracy’s light may flicker as regimes barter influence and suppress dissent, while the planet bears the weight of such bargains. Lands transformed into zones of resource, rivers tributaries of profit, forests logged for markets—these are not abstractions but lived wounds for communities at the frontline of climate change. Colonial memory is not buried; it hums in the undercurrent of development plans that treat people as resources and land as collateral.

The toxins of a toxic capitalist system cling to every handshake: the endless chase of GDP, the subsidy of fossil fuels, the militarization of borders, the displacement of Indigenous and marginalized communities, and the heaping of external costs onto shoulders that can least bear them. The scars of extraction—environmental degradation, water scarcity, polluted shores, ruined ecosystems—are the price tagged to power’s theater. The Earth herself longs for reparations, not more pipelines, not more grand portraits, not more markets overtaking habitats and spirits.

Yet healing is possible. Let diplomacy be anchored not in the protection of centers of power, but in the stewardship of life. Let climate justice precede cooperation, binding commitments stand beside dialogue, and losses and damages be named and funded with humility. Let Indigenous sovereignty, community leadership, and local knowledge illuminate development plans so they nurture soil, water, air, and seed rather than exhaust them. Let regional ties be forged as bonds of care—shared water, shared forests, shared skies—where prosperity is measured by restoration and resilience, not by conquest and consumption. Let a new order arise that honors the Earth as mother and all her children as kin, a sanctuary of healing rather than a battlefield of extraction.

May we dismantle the colonial architecture that has turned wealth into dominance and nature into a ledger item. May we cultivate a regional and global rhythm grounded in green sovereignty, just transitions, and the sacred stewardship of all life. And may every handshake in these halls be mirrored by hands that cradle rivers, plant trees, and defend the rights of the soil to breathe. Until then, we walk with Mother Earth, listening for her voice in wind and water, and we resist the lure of power if it forgets the pulse of life.