Putin and Xi head to Central Asia for Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit
Around a dozen heads of state, including Russia's Putin, China's Xi, Iran's Pezeshkian and India's Modi, gather in Bishkek for a two-day summit marking 25 years of the SCO. The meeting comes amid the Ukraine war and the six-month-old US-Iran conflict.
Leaders from about ten countries are set to convene in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on Monday for a two-day summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), marking the bloc's 25th anniversary. The grouping, which includes Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Iran, four Central Asian states and Moscow-aligned Belarus, is widely seen as a counterweight to Western influence.
Attendees include Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov will chair the plenary session. Putin is also scheduled to hold separate bilateral talks with Pezeshkian and Xi, according to Kremlin spokesman Yuri Ushakov.
The gathering takes place four and a half years into Russia's invasion of Ukraine and six months into the conflict between Washington and Tehran. US President Donald Trump has previously warned Moscow and Beijing against supplying arms to Iran. Putin's meeting with Pezeshkian follows a rare visit to Moscow by CIA Director John Ratcliffe days earlier.
The SCO has traditionally focused on economic cooperation but has gained greater political weight in recent years under Russian and Chinese leadership. Beyond its ten member states, the bloc counts 15 "dialogue partners", including Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, plus observer states Afghanistan and Mongolia. Although the organisation's founding declaration states it is not directed against other countries, Putin and Xi have repeatedly used past summits to criticise the West.
This year's meeting unfolds against a backdrop of real conflicts and trade disputes — the US imposed secondary sanctions this month on Iran's trading partners in gold, technology, digital assets, aviation and maritime transport. China, a major buyer of Iranian oil, said it would "firmly defend" its interests. Analysts note that Iran's membership is seen as a way to work around sanctions, though tangible benefits have so far been limited. The bloc claims to represent roughly 40 percent of the world's population and 25 percent of global GDP, yet internal disagreements persist, including a rivalry between Russia and China for influence in Central Asia.
