TINJIAN: As China prepares to host the 25th annual SCO summit, starting today (Sunday), is expecting a fuller house than ever of leaders from the region and beyond.
Indian Premier Narendra Modi will visit China for the first time since 2018, amid a rapprochement that began late last year but has been propelled further by United States President Donald Trump’s 50 per cent tariffs on Indian goods, which have forced New Delhi to seek stronger partnerships with Beijing and other players in Eurasia.
When majority of the world is grappling with the chaos unleashed by Trump’s tariffs and threats, analysts expect the SCO conclave to serve as a platform for Xi to project his country as a stabilizing force, capable of uniting the Global South to counter-balance the West, particularly the US.
China’s Assistant Foreign Minister Liu Bin told a news conference in Beijing that the summit would be “one of China’s most important head-of-state and home-court diplomatic events this year”.
This year’s summit is set to take place from today (August 31) in Tianjin, a northern Chinese city on the Bohai Sea.
Liu told reporters that the summit will gather more than 20 foreign leaders and the heads of 10 international organizations.
They include leaders of SCO member states: India’s Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Krygyz President Sadyr Japarov and Tajik President Emomali Rahmon.
Turkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Myanmar’s military chief Min Aung Hlaing, Nepal’s Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli, Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto, Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and the Maldives’ President Mohamed Muizzu are among other leaders expected to attend.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Secretary-General Kao Kim Hourn will also attend the Summit.
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 organization 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.
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