SCO Summit 2026: Who Is Attending, Where Is It Held and What Is on the Agenda?
Leaders from across Eurasia are gathering in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, this weekend for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s 26th annual summit, a three-day gathering running from Aug. 30 to Sept. 1 that marks the bloc’s 25th anniversary. The main Council of Heads of State session, where leaders will deliver formal remarks and adopt joint declarations, takes place Sept. 1.
The gathering brings together roughly a dozen heads of state, including Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at a moment of shifting regional alliances: a tentative thaw in China-India relations after years of border tension, the aftermath of last year’s brief India-Pakistan conflict, and ongoing wars in Ukraine and the Middle East that touch several SCO members directly.
Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov will chair the summit as host, closing out Kyrgyzstan’s year-long rotating presidency of the organization under the theme “25 Years of the SCO: Together for Sustainable Peace, Development and Prosperity.”
Who Is Attending
The confirmed list of leaders traveling to Bishkek includes Xi, Putin, Modi, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, all of whom are expected to take part in the plenary session chaired by Japarov. The SCO’s full membership spans 10 countries: China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India, Pakistan, Iran and Belarus, plus observer states Afghanistan and Mongolia and 15 dialogue partners that include Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Beyond the plenary, several bilateral meetings are expected on the sidelines. Putin is scheduled to hold separate talks with both Pezeshkian and Xi, according to Kremlin spokesman Yuri Ushakov, while Iran’s Pezeshkian is set to meet Putin as Tehran faces mounting U.S. economic pressure and threatened secondary sanctions on its trading partners. Modi is also expected to hold bilateral meetings with Japarov and other leaders during his stop in Bishkek, which follows a separate leg of his Central Asia trip in Tashkent.
Why This Summit Matters
The summit is taking place in Bishkek, the Kyrgyz capital, with related SCO events this year hosted at the Ala-Archa State Residence outside the city. Kyrgyzstan spent the past year preparing for the gathering, hosting dozens of ministerial meetings, forums and cultural events in the run-up, including a July meeting of SCO foreign ministers in Cholpon-Ata and a media and analytical centers forum in Bishkek in late July.
What’s on the Agenda
According to the SCO Secretariat, leaders are expected to discuss major regional and international security challenges, including the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, instability in Afghanistan, and the state of India’s relations with both China and Pakistan. The organization has taken an increasingly visible collective position this year on Iran and the wider Middle East, including the Palestinian issue, calling for restraint and diplomatic solutions, a stance SCO foreign ministers reiterated at their July meeting in Cholpon-Ata.
On the economic and institutional side, Kyrgyzstan has pushed several concrete proposals ahead of the summit, according to SCO Secretary-General Nurlan Yermekbayev: establishing an SCO development bank, building new transportation corridors to improve connectivity between member states, creating stronger joint mechanisms for responding to climate and emergency events, and launching an SCO Youth Digital Forum to put youth and digital cooperation higher on the bloc’s agenda.
The summit is expected to conclude with the adoption of a “Bishkek Declaration” marking the organization’s 25th anniversary, alongside additional documents on the SCO’s development and on regional and international issues. The gathering will also formally close out Kyrgyzstan’s chairmanship and hand the rotating SCO presidency to Pakistan, which will lead the organization through 2027 and host next year’s leaders’ summit.
Why This Summit Matters
Founded in Shanghai in 2001 to resolve border disputes and build trust among neighboring states, the SCO has grown into a broad regional platform spanning security, trade, connectivity and cultural exchange. Its members now account for roughly a third of global economic output, according to figures cited around the group’s anniversary, giving the organization outsized reach even though it operates without the binding commitments of a formal military alliance or economic union.
This year’s summit will be watched closely for what it signals about two relationships in particular: the pace of the China-India thaw, following renewed boundary talks between senior officials in Beijing on Aug. 25, and the depth of coordination between China and Russia, whose leaders are expected to hold their own sideline meeting in Bishkek. Analysts also note the summit’s timing, arriving as the U.S. presses tariffs on Chinese and Indian goods and tightens sanctions on Iran, giving member states an added incentive to project unity even where bilateral tensions remain unresolved.
