From Tianjin to Tamu: Why Modi Turned to Manipur After SCO

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi appeared in Tianjin alongside Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, the optics carried Eurasian gravitas. Three leaders, three smiles, one stage — minus Pakistan, whose absence was as calculated as it was telling. For Delhi, the SCO delivered visibility, not breakthroughs. Days later, Modi surfaced in Manipur — not for photo-ops, but for politics and policy. The order matters. To project power into Eurasia, India must first stabilise its Northeast.

SCO optics vs Northeast reality

The SCO has long been more spectacle than substance. With neither binding security obligations nor real economic glue, its stagecraft is what matters. Xi used Tianjin to show China’s centrality. Putin used it to mask Ukraine’s drag. Modi used it to engage without yielding to China’s corridors.

But Delhi knows connectivity to Eurasia is hollow if its eastern frontier is on fire. SCO provides optics; Manipur provides viability. Geography cannot become strategy if the Northeast is unstable.

Manipur: India’s eastern hinge

Manipur is not just another state; it is India’s hinge to Southeast Asia. The Moreh–Tamu crossing remains the sole land corridor into Myanmar and onward to ASEAN. Every blueprint of the Act East Policy — highways, fibre cables, or trade routes — converges here.

That is why the ethnic conflict since 2023 is more than a domestic rupture; it is a strategic chokehold. Projects stall, investors hesitate, partners lose patience. Modi’s visit after Tianjin was not just local reassurance — it was a signal to Asia that India knows its bridge to ASEAN is blocked until Manipur is calmed.

Kaladan and the Bay of Bengal escape hatch

If Moreh is the land bridge, the Kaladan Multimodal Transit Transport Project is the maritime fallback. Linking Sittwe port in Myanmar to Mizoram via river and road, Kaladan bypasses the vulnerable Siliguri Corridor and offers the Northeast direct sea access.

But arteries do not function if the body is weak. Without stability in Mizoram and Manipur, Kaladan risks becoming another stranded idea.

From Tianjin to Tamu: completing the arc

Why Tianjin first and Tamu next? The sequence itself is strategy. At Tianjin, Modi needed to be seen with Xi and Putin — signalling presence, rejecting Belt and Road, ignoring Pakistan.

Back home, Manipur was the anchor. Without a functioning eastern flank, Eurasian theatre is hollow. Tianjin gave Modi the optics; Tamu, on the Myanmar border, gives India the door that counts.

China’s shadow across Myanmar

The urgency is heightened by Beijing’s deepening footprint. Pipelines from Kyaukphyu port to Yunnan already give China an Indian Ocean lever. The China–Myanmar Economic Corridor is turning into a geopolitical shortcut.

Every month of unrest in Manipur delays Indian projects and weakens Delhi’s credibility in ASEAN. It hands Beijing a free pass to entrench its influence. Modi’s presence in Manipur was a message: India will not allow its Northeast to implode — because the cost is ceding Southeast Asia to China.

The policy imperatives

For Delhi, three imperatives are urgent:

1. Stabilise Manipur: Security must be matched with political reconciliation and economic revival. No corridor works amid ethnic strife.

2. Accelerate Kaladan: The Sittwe–Mizoram axis must move from paperwork to operations.

3. Link Northeast to wider corridors: A stable Northeast can plug into IMEC and INSTC, making local geography global leverage.

Modi’s sequence decoded

At Tianjin, Modi stood for history. In Manipur, he worked for strategy. SCO handed him optics; Manipur holds the corridor that matters. From Tianjin to Tamu, the message is blunt: India cannot project into Eurasia without first securing its hinge to Southeast Asia. The road to Europe may run through Eurasia — but India’s Indo-Pacific future begins in Manipur.