{"id":1034668,"date":"2026-08-31T09:25:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T09:25:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1034668\/"},"modified":"2026-08-31T09:25:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T09:25:18","slug":"leaders-of-china-russia-and-india-are-among-heads-of-state-meeting-in-kyrgyzstan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1034668\/","title":{"rendered":"Leaders of China, Russia and India are among heads of state meeting in Kyrgyzstan"},"content":{"rendered":"

The leaders of China, Russia and India are among the heads of state gathering in Kyrgyzstan this week for the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization,<\/a> a group billed as a counterweight to U.S. global influence. <\/p>\n

Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin<\/a> and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi<\/a> are scheduled to attend the events in Bishkek, the capital of the Central Asian nation.<\/p>\n

Multiple one-on-one meetings are scheduled on the sidelines, including one between Putin and Xi on Monday, as well as talks between the Russian leader and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian<\/a> on Tuesday, the day of the official SCO sessions.<\/p>\n

Russia, now 4\u00bd years into its full-scale invasion of Ukraine,<\/a> and Iran, six months into a war with the United States and Israel,<\/a> see the summit as an important platform to strengthen their relations with non-Western partners.<\/p>\n

The SCO was founded in 2001 by China, Russia and four Central Asian states as a security forum. Over the past quarter-century, it has grown in size and influence, although its goals and programs remain vague and its brand recognition low.<\/p>\n

It now includes 10 nations: Russia, China, India, Iran, Pakistan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Many other countries have the status of \u201cdialogue partners.\u201d<\/p>\n

Along with Russia, China has presented the SCO as an alternative to Western-aligned organizations like the G7, and in recent years has wanted to expand the scope and influence of the organization, pledging development and financial assistance.<\/p>\n

China\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said last week that the organization has successfully \u201cexplored a new path for regional cooperation.\u201d Beijing has consistently promoted the idea of an alternative world order with Russia\u2019s support.<\/p>\n

Summit attendees have significant disagreements<\/p>\n

For many SCO members, the summit will be an opportunity to show that they maintain strong ties on the global stage despite souring relations with the West.<\/p>\n

The organization is not a unified political or military bloc, however, and analysts note that its members have significant disagreements and their own distinct interests.<\/p>\n

For countries such as India, however, experts say the summit is likely to be more about optics and strategic signaling than substantive outcomes.<\/p>\n

The forum is heavily influenced by China and includes Pakistan as a member \u2014 both of which are rivals for India.<\/p>\n

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Dinakar Peri, a fellow in security studies at Carnegie India, said the SCO gives India a seat at the table in a region increasingly shaped by competition among the larger powers, allowing it to protect its interests, track shifting geopolitical currents and project itself as a reliable stakeholder.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile it may not entirely shape the agenda, it gives New Delhi a first-hand view of the region and allows it to hedge its position with others,\u201d Peri said.<\/p>\n

Turkey, which holds partner status within the SCO, also seeks to use the platform to strengthen its position in the region.<\/p>\n

It views SCO membership as part of a balanced foreign policy that seeks to maintain its traditional ties with the West as a part of NATO, while strengthening its influence in Eurasia.<\/p>\n

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who brought his country into the SCO as a \u201cdialogue partner\u201d in 2012, has repeatedly stated that he wants Turkey to become a permanent member. While Turkey has close trade ties with the European Union under a 1995 trade deal, its EU membership bid has stalled for more than 25 years.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Andrew Wilks in Istanbul, Turkey, Huizhong Wu in Bangkok, and Aijaz Hussain in New Delhi contributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The leaders of China, Russia and India are among the heads of state gathering in Kyrgyzstan this week…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1034669,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[97,272269,414050,13214,64,74,13212,440,57,1567,2242,3464,83,3461,6087,196463,14241,19720,50,80,32307,257,3658,3657,16524,370,274,103,107,11762],"class_list":["post-1034668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-2024-2025-mideast-wars","tag-2024-2026-mideast-wars","tag-andrew-wilks","tag-asia-pacific","tag-business","tag-china","tag-china-government","tag-europe","tag-general-news","tag-india","tag-india-government","tag-international-agreements","tag-iran","tag-iran-government","tag-iran-war","tag-kyrgyzstan","tag-masoud-pezeshkian","tag-narendra-modi","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-recep-tayyip-erdogan","tag-russia","tag-russia-government","tag-russia-ukraine-war","tag-south-asia","tag-united-states-government","tag-vladimir-putin","tag-world","tag-world-news","tag-xi-jinping"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1034668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1034668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1034668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1034669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1034668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1034668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1034668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}