Russia's Putin and China's Xi to attend summit in Kyrgyzstan
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- Putin, Xi Jinping, and leaders from all 10 SCO member states convened in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan for a two-day summit starting Monday, August 31, marking the bloc's 25-year anniversary
- Xi Jinping, arriving Sunday, hailed a "golden period" in China-Kyrgyzstan relations and signaled Beijing's deepening reach into the historically Russia-dominated Central Asian region
- Putin is set to hold separate bilateral talks with Iran's Masoud Pezeshkian and Xi, Kremlin spokesman Yuri Ushakov said, days after CIA director John Ratcliffe made a rare trip to Moscow
- Iran's Pezeshkian — whose country joined the bloc only in 2023 — attends as the US this month slapped secondary sanctions on Iran's trading partners across gold, technology, digital assets, aviation, and maritime transport
- The SCO claims roughly 40% of the world's population and 25% of global GDP, but internal rifts persist: Russia and China compete for Central Asian influence while Beijing has strained relations with both India and Pakistan
- India's Narendra Modi and Pakistan's Shehbaz Sharif are due at the plenary session chaired by Kyrgyz leader Sadyr Japarov, while Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan attends as a non-member dialogue partner
Why it matters: The Bishkek gathering gives Putin and Xi a platform to project a united anti-Western front just as Moscow and Tehran deepen military and economic ties under sanctions, yet the bloc's own internal fractures — Sino-Indian tension, Russia-China rivalry in Central Asia, and Iran's acknowledged "economic difficulties" — undercut the rhetorical unity, with one expert quoted noting SCO membership has rarely helped Iran resolve crises.
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