Russian President Vladimir Putin, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and other leaders from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) are attending a two-day summit in China where Xi Jinping will aim to hone his vision of an alternative world order.
More than 20 leaders are gathering in the northern port city of Tianjin on August 31 to September 1 as China hosts the bloc’s annual summit to discuss regional security and trade issues against the backdrop of rising tensions with the West.
The summit is also an opportunity for China to portray itself as the leader of the Global South while convening one of the world’s largest regional organizations that accounts for around one-quarter of global GDP and roughly half of its population.
Here are the storylines to watch at this year’s summit.
1. Another Episode Of The ‘Putin And Xi Show’
Following a flurry of diplomacy around the war in Ukraine, including a summit with US President Donald Trump, all eyes will be on Putin as he meets the Chinese leader.
“The SCO has become something of a Putin-Xi show,” Temur Umarov, a fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin, told RFE/RL. “It’s less about the summit itself and more about the meetings on the sidelines.”
Both Beijing and Moscow view the SCO – whose members include Belarus, China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan – as a vehicle to oppose Western-led institutions and have increasingly treated the bloc as a type of laboratory for how to coordinate their shared aims for Eurasia and beyond and their stated goal of reshaping the global order.
Putin will also fold the SCO summit into a broader state visit to China that will see him attend a high-profile military parade in Beijing on September 3 marking the end of World War II.
2. India’s Modi Looks East
The Indian prime minister’s trip marks his first visit to China in more than seven years and comes as Beijing and New Delhi flirt with a detente after deadly border clashes in 2020.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi wrapped up a visit to New Delhi earlier this month where he looked to capitalize on a new low in US-India relations that was sparked by renewed US tariff pressure and calls from Trump for India, a top customer for Russian oil, to limit its purchases.
Modi and Xi’s meeting could build on that with further measures, including easing border tensions through troop withdrawals, and lifting some trade and visa restrictions.
Russia’s embassy in New Delhi also said last week that it hopes that trilateral talks between Modi, Putin, and Xi will be able to take place.
3. Central Asia Navigates A New China-Russia Tandem
When the SCO was founded in 2001, it was mainly a Chinese initiative designed to engage with Central Asia while trying to respect Moscow’s sensitivities about Beijing’s growing sway in the region.
“China and Russia are both collaborators and competitors,” Luca Anceschi, professor of Eurasian Studies at the University of Glasgow, told RFE/RL. “But as we see in Central Asia, they are collaborating far more than they are competing.”
That may create new complications for Central Asian countries as they seek to balance Beijing and Moscow in the SCO to avoid becoming over-reliant on them, but it could also present some new opportunities for its authoritarian governments.
“There is a shared set of authoritarian-friendly values emerging in the region that may make life easier for Central Asian regimes,” Anceschi said.
4. Is More Expansion On The Horizon?
The SCO expanded last year to include Belarus. This was preceded by Iran’s admission in 2023, and India and Pakistan joining together in 2017.
In addition to its 10 full-fledged members, the SCO also has 2 observer states, and 14 dialogue partners.
While further expansion is not expected, a particular focus will be paid to Armenia and Azerbaijan. The regional rivals are already dialogue partners and have applied to become full members since the last SCO summit.
5. The SCO Hunts For An Identity
The SCO has found its value as a symbolic venue for the leaders as they look to deepen their partnerships and influence social and political norms in parts of the world outside the Western-led global order.
But internal differences continue to be a weak spot, despite the SCO’s growing appeal.
For instance, during a gathering of the organization’s defense ministers in June, India refused to join a statement condemning Israeli attacks on Iran. New Delhi said this was because the declaration omitted any reference to the April 22 deadly attacks on Hindu tourists in Indian Kashmir, which led to renewed fighting between India and Pakistan.
“With China, India, and Russia all under growing pressure from the United States, this summit will test whether the SCO can act as a cohesive organization or whether it will remain a fragmented platform driven primarily by national interests,” Yunis Sharifli, a nonresident fellow at the China Global South Project, told RFE/RL.
