TIANJIN, China: Chinese President Xi Jinping on Sunday said the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is shouldering greater responsibilities for safeguarding regional peace and stability, and for boosting development of various countries in a world of increasing uncertainties and accelerated changes, China’s state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
The Chinese President made the remarks at a banquet to welcome international guests who are in China’s port city of Tianjin to attend the SCO Summit 2025 from Sunday to Monday.
More than 20 foreign leaders and the heads of 10 international organisations are attending the SCO summit in China.
President Xi gathered the leaders of Russia, Pakistan, and India among dignitaries from around 20 Eurasian countries on Sunday for the SCO summit aimed, putting China front and centre of regional relations.
The summit is taking place days before a massive military parade in Beijing to mark 80 years since the end of World War II.
The SCO comprises China, India, Russia, Pakistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Belarus – with 16 more countries affiliated as observers or “dialogue partners”.
Russian President Vladimir Putin touched down in Tianjin on Sunday with an entourage of senior politicians and business representatives.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Secretary-General Kao Kim Hourn are also attending the Summit.
According to Xinhua, Xi expressed confidence that with the concerted efforts of all parties, the summit will be a complete success.
He said the SCO is certain to play an even bigger role and achieve more progress, making a greater contribution to boosting unity and cooperation among member states.
“The Tianjin summit is the largest-ever annual summit of the group. Member states are expected to adopt key documents, including the organisation’s development strategy for the next decade,” Xinhua reported.
“Xi told the guests at the banquet that as an open and inclusive city, Tianjin serves as a pioneering zone for China’s reform and opening-up, and hosting the summit here will undoubtedly inject new vitality into the sustainable development of the SCO.”
The Chinese president was also quoted as saying that the SCO has “become an important force in building a new type of international relations and a community with a shared future for humanity”.
Bilateral meetings
Meanwhile, Xi held a flurry of bilateral meetings with leaders from the Maldives, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. He also met India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Xinhua news agency reported.
China and Russia have sometimes touted the SCO as an alternative to the NATO military alliance. This year’s summit is the first since US President Donald Trump returned to the White House.
In an interview published by Xinhua on Saturday, Putin said the summit will “strengthen the SCO’s capacity to respond to contemporary challenges and threats, and consolidate solidarity across the shared Eurasian space”. “All this will help shape a fairer multipolar world order,” Putin said.
More than 20 leaders, including Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, among others, are attending the bloc’s largest meeting since its founding in 2001.
Putin is expected to hold talks on Monday with his Turkish counterpart Erdogan, and Iran’s Pezeshkian about the Ukraine conflict and Tehran’s nuclear programme, respectively, AFP reported.
Competing for influence
The summit comes days after India was hit by a sharp bump up in US tariffs on its goods as punishment for New Delhi’s purchases of Russian oil.
India’s premier Modi arrived on Saturday, in his first visit to China since 2018.
The two most populous nations are competing for influence across South Asia and fought a deadly border clash in 2020.
A thaw began last October, when Modi met with Xi for the first time in five years at a summit in Russia.
Modi was not on a list of attendees for the Beijing parade published by Chinese state media that included Myanmar’s Min Aung Hlaing, and North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un.
Significance of SCO
The SCO began in 1996 as a security bloc, dubbed the “Shanghai Five”. It was formed by China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to settle their border disputes following the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union.
But in June 2001, the group evolved into the SCO, including Uzbekistan, with headquarters in Beijing. In 2017, the group expanded to include India and Pakistan. Iran in 2023 and Belarus in 2024 were also added as full members.
In addition, the organisation has 14 key dialogue partners, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkiye, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Cambodia.
SCO member states account for 43 percent of the world’s population, and 23 percent – or almost a quarter – of the global economy, according to Al Jazeera.
