The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is an international organization founded in 2001 by China and Russia to discuss security concerns in Central Asia and the wider region. The organization includes China, Russia, Iran, India, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan as members. Observer states and dialogue partners include Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and others.
The annual session of the SCO is taking place in Astana, Kazakhstan, on Wednesday and Thursday, with leaders from various countries attending, including Vladimir Putin of Russia, Xi Jinping of China, and Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of Kazakhstan. Other leaders attending include Shehbaz Sharif of Pakistan, Shavkat Mirziyoyev of Uzbekistan, Emomali Rakhmon of Tajikistan, Sadyr Zhaparov of Kyrgyzstan, and Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus. Iran’s acting President Mohammad Mokhbar will also attend, as Iran is still choosing a successor to President Ebrahim Raisi, who was killed in a helicopter crash in May.
The SCO helps China project its influence, especially across Central Asia and the Global South. Xi called for “bridges of communication” between countries last week and wants to further promote China as an alternative to the U.S. and its allies. The meeting is a way for Central Asian nations to further their cooperation with bigger, more powerful neighbors.
Putin wants to use the meeting to show that Russia isn’t isolated over Western sanctions from the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and to emphasize the close partnership between Russia and China. Countering terrorism is a key focus of the SCO, with Russia having experienced two terrorist attacks this year. The SCO is not a collective security or economic alliance, and there are significant security differences between its members.
Political differences among some of SCO members, such as India and Pakistan over disputed Kashmir, make it difficult to reach collective agreement on some issues. China has backed Moscow amid the fighting in Ukraine, but at a meeting of the SCO in 2022, Putin referred to Beijing’s unspecified “concerns” over the conflict. India’s Modi then called for an end to the fighting without voicing explicit disapproval of Moscow’s action.
Ukraine is not attending the meeting, and major talks or breakthroughs on the war are not expected. However, there could be discussions about the war on the peripheries of the summit, probably behind closed doors. Putin will try to show there’s a “big club of countries” that are “ambivalent” toward the war in Ukraine. The United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres may use the meeting to talk to Putin about how Russia is “disrupting the coherence of the U.N.”
