While Donald Trump emerged triumphant from the NATO summit after brokering a fragile Middle East ceasefire and cowing Europe into spending more on their militaries, there was another defence summit half a world away that got nowhere near the attention.
In the seaside city of Qingdao, China’s defence minister Dong Jun was hosting his counterparts from Iran and Russia. They were there for a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, but recent events had exposed their partnership as far less formidable than feared.