On Sept. 1, leaders from ten nations will gather in Bishkek, the Kyrgyz Republic, for the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s heads of state. This year’s gathering marks the organization’s 25th anniversary, and its quiet evolution into one of the most consequential forces in Eurasia in a shifting, increasingly precarious world order.
Javier M. Piedra.
President Sadyr Japarov of Kyrgyzstan, host and chairman, has chosen a motto that says as much about ambition as nostalgia: 25 Years of the SCO: Together Towards Sustainable Peace, Development, and Prosperity. It is both a tribute to the past and conveys a commitment to the future.
The roll call in Bishkek will include Belarus’s Alexander Lukashenko, China’s Xi Jinping, India’s Narendra Modi, Iran’s Masoud Pezeshkian, Kazakhstan’s Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Pakistan’s Shehbaz Sharif, Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Tajikistan’s Emomali Rahmon, Uzbekistan’s Shavkat Mirziyoyev, alongside Japarov as host. Ten heads of state, representing close to half the world’s population, will sit at one table in the Kyrgyz Republic. A decade ago, few Westerners had ever heard of the country and fewer could have located it on a map. That in itself is part of the story.
SCO Plus
The SCO Plus meetings widens the summit’s list of attendees beyond the organization’s 10 full members, bringing in two observer states (Afghanistan, Mongolia) and 15 dialogue partners spanning the Caucasus, West Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Cambodia, Egypt, Kuwait, Laos, the Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Türkiye and the UAE).
Last year’s summit was the largest SCO gathering on record, drawing dozens of national leaders as well as the UN Secretary General and other international organization heads. Twenty-seven countries in all now orbit the organization in some capacity with more expected. The SCO has been a concern for the United States.
Japarov’s Summit to Win — or Lose
Hosting the summit lends Kyrgyzstan added prestige and visibility on the world stage. Yet beyond the chairmanship, President Japarov’s core focus remains raising living standards at home, ensuring economic stability, and elevating Bishkek’s diplomatic standing, particularly with an anticipated UN Security Council seat in 2027.
As SCO host, he is expected to draw on Kyrgyzstan’s reputation as the Switzerland of Central Asia, steering part of the agenda toward ecological issues, mountain ecosystems, and glacier preservation—themes that will also feature prominently at the 2026 World Nomad Games this September.
A clear subtext is that Japarov does not want Bishkek hijacked by outside noise, whether that means great-power theatrics, last-minute diplomatic ambushes, or the kind of external meddling that has derailed other multilateral gatherings in recent memory.
What Cholpon-Ata Already Told Us
Last July in Cholpon-Ata, SCO foreign ministers approved the adoption of the SCO’s thematic statements, including one on cooperation in the field of energy security.
Security dominates the agenda: terrorism, extremism, separatism, cybercrime, and organized crime. Counter-narcotics gets separate treatment, with a proposed SCO-wide focus on continuing the World Without Drugs campaign.
Alongside economic integration efforts such as trade corridors, digital connectivity, the operationalization of the SCO Development Bank, there’s quieter discussion of internal reform, building on a 2025 decision to modernize how the now ten-member SCO functions. Maintaining open trade routes, reliable trade flows, diverse currency settlement options, and continued infrastructure development will remain core priorities, regardless of the state of the international economic order.
The Multipolar undercurrent
Beneath the discussion of security and economic integration runs a deeper thread. The SCO has increasingly cast itself as an inclusive Eurasia-centric structure aligned with a multipolar vision, one that offers dialogue and diplomacy as a proposed counterweight to unipolarity and a bloc mentality. Whether or not one buys this framing entirely, it is the organization’s own stated strategic logic: win-win cooperation over zero-sum competition, joint work over a go-it-alone approach.
In this sense, the expected 2026 Bishkek SCO Declaration will not be much different from the declarations issued in 2025 at Tianjin and in 2024 at Astana.
West Asia and currencies loom over everything
West Asia will loom over this year’s summit. President Pezeshkian is expected to arrive in Bishkek as Iran’s relations with Washington over the Strait of Hormuz remain deadlocked; this is set against tensions across the globe causing additional havoc in energy, trade and capital markets.
India’s Modi and Pakistan’s Sharif will sit at the same table. Though the Taliban are expected to be absent, tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan will still weigh heavily on the SCO talks.
Payment system reform and currency diversification will also figure prominently, as over reliance on dollar-based clearing has left some members exposed to sanctions and monetary shocks.
A quarter-century test
To be sure, twenty-five years after its birth in Shanghai, the SCO has grown into something that can claim a seat at the table where global geopolitics are discussed—like it or not. The summit will not untangle West Asia’s troubles, nor eliminate Eurasia’s geoeconomic rivalries. But, despite their differences, ten states, along with observers and dialogue partners, will unite behind achieving this political objective set forth in last year’s Tianjn SCO Declaration: “Member States reaffirm that Central Asia is the core of the SCO and support the efforts of Central Asian states to ensure peace, security and stability in their countries and in the region as a whole.”
Should Japarov get his way, the summit’s takeaway won’t be rhetoric or crisis diplomacy, but a definite reminder that dialogue still pays off, and that, with pragmatism and cool headedness, a road map for action can be hammered out.
As the SCO turns 25 on Sept. 1, its greatest test may be whether countries can find common ground, not only across economic and political divides, but across civilizations. Twenty-five years on, that would be no small achievement but a signal accomplishment in itself.
The author is Javier M. Piedra, a financial consultant, specialist in international development and former deputy assistant administrator for South and Central Asia at USAID.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of The Astana Times.
