SCO Bishkek Summit Condemns US-Israel Iran Strikes — SkimNews
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- The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation held its 26th summit in Bishkek on August 31-September 1 — its first since the US-Israel war on Iran began on February 28, 2026 — attended by PM Modi, Putin, Xi Jinping, and Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian.
- The Bishkek Declaration condemned US-Israel strikes on Iran, reaffirmed support for Iran's "sovereignty and territorial integrity," condoled the assassination of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and criticized violations of international law and the UN Charter.
- The declaration advocated members' "inalienable right" to develop "atomic energy for peaceful purposes" — an indirect backing for Iran in its nuclear negotiations with the US — and called the Palestine question the path to lasting West Asian stability.
- Prime Minister Modi demanded "no double standards" in fighting terrorism, highlighted India's relief deliveries to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, and implicitly criticized China's CPEC by stressing that connectivity must respect "sovereignty and territorial integrity," even as India declined to endorse the BRI.
- The declaration flagged "unauthorised satellite Internet services" on member state territory as violations of international law — an apparent reference to Elon Musk's Starlink operating in parts of Eastern Ukraine and Iran.
- Pakistan assumed the SCO's rotating chair, meaning the next summit will be held there; India has not clarified whether Modi will attend given the strain from the 2025 Pahalgam attack, Operation Sindoor, and the Indus Waters Treaty being placed "in abeyance."
- The SCO has survived 25 years across 29 charter bodies and 40+ working mechanisms without a collective defense component, despite persistent India-Pakistan and India-China disputes that the grouping has repeatedly papered over.
Why it matters: The 10-nation bloc's first post-war declaration openly condemned US and Israeli military action in Iran and backed Tehran's nuclear rights — coordinated messaging signed by Russia, China, and India that pushes the SCO from a regional consultative forum toward an explicit counter-Western platform, just as Pakistan took the rotating chair and India faces a decision on whether Modi travels there next year.
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