The Shanghai Cooperation Organization: A Silver Jubilee Summit

The 25th Summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) was held in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, from August 31 to September 1.

Many questions hovered over the summit, while its record over a quarter of a century was closely watched by circles around the world, particularly in the West. The central question was whether this was a summit of particular significance. More importantly, could it represent a step toward building a multipolar and multilateral global order without necessarily becoming a military alliance whose interactions are defined primarily by force and confrontation?

The summit does indeed appear to be a significant event, particularly because it marks the anniversary of the emergence and gradual rise of a platform for regional cooperation that has expanded its strength and influence on the global stage quietly and without excessive fanfare.

Let us begin by looking at the organizational structure of its member states. Collectively, they account for a substantial share of the world’s population, territory, and economic output, giving the organization growing influence in regional and global affairs.

The numbers speak for themselves. The populations of SCO member states account for approximately 42 percent of the world’s population, while their combined economic output represents around 36 percent of global GDP, calculated on a purchasing power parity basis.

A comparison with the corresponding figures for the G7 is revealing. The G7 accounts for approximately 10 percent of the world’s population and 28 percent of global GDP on a purchasing power parity basis. Yet the G7 meeting held in France last June received extensive global attention, while the Bishkek summit was likely to attract comparatively little notice.

Does this indicate that some circles within traditional Western centers of influence are concerned about the rise of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization?

There appears to be genuine concern that the SCO could evolve from a largely regional organization into a broader and more attractive framework for countries seeking a new international system—one that is more diverse and genuinely multilateral.

What makes the Shanghai Cooperation Organization such an intriguing, and perhaps challenging, entity is that China constitutes its core and dynamic center of gravity. Beijing has played an important role in shaping its principles, mechanisms of cooperation, and development programs.

In 2001, during the organization’s inaugural summit, China introduced an expression that has remained highly influential: the “Shanghai Spirit.” This concept emphasizes mutual trust, mutual benefit, respect for cultural diversity and equality, consultation, and the pursuit of common development. Over the years, the Shanghai Spirit has evolved into a guiding principle for cooperation among the organization’s members.

Here, the influence of the Confucian philosophical tradition appears particularly evident: a worldview that conceives existence as an interconnected whole, in which differences may unfold along different paths without necessarily requiring the invocation of Mars, the ancient Roman god of war.

Looking at the organization’s membership, one finds, among others, China, Russia, India, Iran, Belarus, and several Central Asian states, as well as countries from Africa. These members include major powers that compete with one another across various arenas. Yet they are united by one increasingly evident aspiration: to move beyond the constraints of the post-World War II international order and the Bretton Woods system, while also seeking fundamental reforms within the United Nations, which, approaching the end of the third decade of the twenty-first century, is increasingly viewed as unable to adequately represent the diversity of the international community.

The relationship between China and India, followed by that between India and Pakistan, offers perhaps the clearest illustration of this dynamic.

Despite signs of improvement in relations between Beijing and New Delhi, the Bishkek summit could serve as a strategic platform for managing competition between the two countries rationally and peacefully, without making war an inevitable outcome.

The same applies to India and Pakistan, which came dangerously close to entering a potentially nuclear confrontation in May 2025.

Among the notable features of the SCO summit was the presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin. This underscored Russia’s continued presence as a welcome and sought-after participant among internationally established states, rather than merely as a country under constant watch by NATO—particularly amid recent concerns about the possibility of military escalation in the Baltic region.

The Bishkek summit appears to represent a serious attempt to outline the contours of a forward-looking international political platform without transforming it into a military alliance that NATO might, at some point, perceive as a successor to the Warsaw Pact.

It is instead a platform for redistributing international influence without pursuing the kind of quixotic conflicts whose costs the world has repeatedly been forced to bear.

The Asian spirit may be the summit’s most distinctive characteristic: an effort to read reality as it is and engage with it without a sense of superiority. This helps explain why issues such as energy, the digital economy, artificial intelligence, green industry, science and technology, and education feature prominently on the agenda.

The central question, therefore, remains:

Is the Bishkek summit a step toward redefining the meaning and structure of a new international order that has yet to fully emerge?