‘PM Modi takes Putin’s car’ becomes top trend on Chinese social media

New Delhi, Sep 1
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s strong personal chemistry with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday became the top talking point on various Chinese social media platforms -- overshadowing other key events of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit.

In the first half of the day, the number one trending topic on Weibo, China’s biggest social media platform, was “Modi takes Putin's car”.

Meanwhile, the top search on Baidu, the country’s leading search engine, was “Modi and Putin hugged and chatted hand-in-hand”.

These trends picked up after reports emerged that President Putin waited nearly 10 minutes for Prime Minister Modi so that the two leaders could ride together to the venue of their bilateral meeting from the SCO conference site.

Weibo, which functions like X (formerly Twitter), is a major platform for trending conversations, short messages, videos and real-time search.

Baidu, on the other hand, is China’s most dominant search engine. Together, the platforms showed a surge of public interest in the Modi-Putin camaraderie, which many users described as symbolic of the “special friendship” between the two nations.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Modi concluded his two-day visit to Tianjin after attending the 25th Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the SCO.

During the summit, he held talks with several world leaders, including Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Concluding a productive visit to China, where I attended the SCO Summit and interacted with various world leaders. Also emphasised India’s stand on key global issues. Thankful to President Xi Jinping, the Chinese government and people for the successful organisation of this Summit,” Prime Minister Modi posted on X before emplaning for New Delhi.

At the SCO meeting, PM Modi underlined India’s approach built on three pillars -- Security, Connectivity and Opportunity.

PM Modi stressed the need for collective action against terrorism, greater cooperation on global governance reforms, and more opportunities for start-ups, youth and cultural exchanges within the SCO framework.

The summit ended with the adoption of the Tianjin Declaration, while Kyrgyzstan assumed the rotating presidency of the SCO.