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The 26th Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (the "SCO Plus" expanded format) was held August 31 to September 1 in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, under the theme "25 Years of the SCO: Together for Sustainable Peace, Development and Prosperity." The summit was chaired by Kyrgyzstan in its capacity as the 2025-2026 rotating chair, marking the SCO's latest annual head-of-state gathering following China's Tianjin summit in 2025, and the closing event of this rotation cycle, drawing extensive global media attention. The meeting focused on the SCO's future direction, the regional security situation, and deepening economic cooperation, producing a series of significant outcome documents.

The SCO's origins trace back to the 1996 "Shanghai Five" mechanism formed by China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan; it was formally renamed the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in 2001 after Uzbekistan joined. The SCO today has 10 full member states — the six founding members plus India and Pakistan, which joined in 2017, Iran, which joined in 2023, and Belarus, which joined in 2024. The organization maintains standing bodies including a Secretariat and the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS), which coordinate members' day-to-day cooperation on security, trade and other matters.

At the summit's close, Kyrgyzstan formally handed over the SCO's rotating chairmanship to Pakistan for the 2026-2027 term. Looking at the recent rotation, the chair had previously passed from India (2023, Delhi) to Kazakhstan (2024, Astana), to China (2025, Tianjin), and to Kyrgyzstan (2025-2026, Bishkek). In addition, Pakistan's city of Lahore was designated the SCO's "Tourism and Cultural Capital" for 2026-2027, the first time a Pakistani city has received the honor.

On September 1, Xi Jinping delivered a major speech at the "SCO Plus" meeting titled "Jointly Advocating an Equal and Orderly Multipolar World and Making Global Governance More Just and Equitable." He said the trend toward a multipolar world was irreversible, and that the collective rise of Global South countries was reshaping the international balance of power, entitling them to a greater voice in international affairs. Xi proposed four principles for building an equal and orderly multipolar world: sovereign equality and mutual respect; balance, order, and adherence to rules; multilateralism, dialogue and consultation; and mutual benefit, win-win cooperation, and inclusiveness. He also put forward a four-point proposal for deepening SCO cooperation: promoting inclusive economic globalization; upholding the equality of all states and resolving disputes through dialogue; implementing the Global Governance Initiative; and carrying forward the "Shanghai Spirit" to jointly build an even closer community with a shared future.

The summit concluded with the signing of the Bishkek Declaration and a total of 28 cooperation documents, co-signed by leaders including Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, Narendra Modi, and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. On security, participants reaffirmed their commitment to jointly combat the "three forces" of terrorism, separatism and extremism, and issued a joint statement condemning recent US and Israeli military strikes on Iran as well as unilateral sanctions imposed by Western countries on some member states — a rare instance of the SCO taking a relatively unified position on Middle East and regional security issues, one that also suggests member states are seeking mutual support amid intensifying geopolitical turbulence, and one that quickly sparked wide discussion in the international community.

The joint statement condemning the US and Israeli military strikes on Iran marked the first formal position the SCO has issued through its multilateral mechanism since that round of conflict began, and was seen as symbolically significant. The statement also expressed dissatisfaction with Western unilateral sanctions mechanisms, calling for international disputes to be resolved through dialogue and consultation rather than force or economic coercion. Several Middle Eastern media outlets gave the statement significant attention, seeing it as a sign that the SCO's position on Middle East issues is becoming increasingly clear.

On economic cooperation, the summit adopted the "SCO Economic Development Strategy to 2030," with participants agreeing to deepen financial cooperation, promote local-currency settlement and the establishment of alternative payment mechanisms, and discuss the feasibility of setting up an "SCO Development Bank." On connectivity, the leaders reaffirmed support for regional connectivity projects including the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway and the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC), and agreed to institutionalize the "SCO Young Scientists Forum" and the "SCO Startup Forum" as ongoing cooperation platforms.

Member-state leaders attending the summit included Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, and host Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov. Observer state Mongolia also sent a delegation, and dialogue partners Azerbaijan, Armenia, Egypt, Laos and Turkey, along with guests of the presiding side Vietnam and Togo, attended by invitation. On the sidelines, Modi and Putin held their first bilateral meeting of the year, focusing on energy and fertilizer trade and follow-up work under the two countries' intergovernmental commission; Putin and Xi separately reaffirmed China-Russia "strategic coordination," stressing the importance of maintaining communication and coordination "in an uncertain world," though no formal bilateral meeting between Xi and Modi was scheduled, a gap that drew varied interpretations from observers.

The SCO was founded in 2001 and is one of the world's largest regional international organizations by both population and territory. This year marks its 25th anniversary, which China marked with a dedicated commemorative event in Beijing on June 15. However, some Western and Indian commentary has taken a cautious view of the SCO's internal cohesion, pointing to persistent structural tensions among members such as India, China and Pakistan, and noting it remains to be seen whether the joint declaration will translate into concrete action. Overall, this year's summit is widely seen as an important step for the SCO, amid a profound reshaping of the global order, to expand its own influence and reinforce the "Global South" narrative, with how well its outcomes are implemented likely to serve as an important gauge of the organization's real-world influence.