Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit 2025: Milestones & looking to the future

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OPINION

By Joshua Kingdom

Between August 31st and September 1st, members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) met in the Chinese city of Tianjin for this year’s heads of state summit. Several milestones were reached during the event, and they matter in two broad respects.

The first regards the fact that it was a crowning of what has been an incredible run by Beijing since the country’s ascendency to the rotating presidency last year. Secondly, and most important for our discussion here, are the implications for international relations.

As the body’s name suggests, one of the outstanding objectives is a strategy of working together by members on areas such as “politics, trade, economy, science and technology, culture, education, energy, transport” among others. And indeed, this was exhibited in Tianjin with over twenty nations coming to attend.

This number is a significant increase from the six nations that signed the Charter of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation back in 2002, when SCO first came into existence there providing a real counterbalance in a world that is increasingly being swept by the winds of nationalism. And President Xi Jinping did not hesitate to point out this in his SCO plus meeting remarks, using the words “hegemony”, “protectionism”, and “Cold War mentality” to describe the current moment in global politics.

Furthermore, SCO has embraced what has come to be known as the “Shanghai spirit” and by the look of things, it is proving to be the very thing that the overlooked countries are yearning for. The spirit is what governs the internal dealings of member states, and it is composed of six tenets, i.e. “mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultation, respect for diversity of civilisations and pursuit of common development.” It is no surprise then that the 2025 conference was the biggest of its kind yet. For nations outside the bracket, the org has embraced “non-alignment, non-targeting at other countries or regions and the principle of openness.”

But it is not only SCO members that appreciate the emerging disturbing dynamics on the international scene. The difference is that the umbrella has shown that it has the capability to respond in ways that not many alliances can. Having worked with different high-level associations over time, for example (among them the International Committee of the Red Cross and the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation), its activities now catch the eyes of crucial stakeholders.

On this occasion, the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, flew in to attend the SCO plus meeting as well as engage with the new Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Secretary General, Nurlan Yermekbayev. Access like this means that policies formulated by the entity are more likely to have an impact worldwide.

It is worth considering too that the countries involved in the SCO are key players in global affairs, so their synergy cannot be wished away, as was evident at the Tianjin summit. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Putin of Russia (both leaders of countries whose economies are ranked in the world’s top ten) thus got to engage in a lengthy conversation on its sidelines. The exchange came in handy, not least because of the attacks that the Indian Prime Minister had to endure from the white House recently over his resolve to import Russian oil.

For its part, China promised $280 million in aid to member states and five times more money in loans, a commitment that is crucial since, in the end, everything goes back to the economy. Otherwise, there have been many political blocs with very noble causes that have come up in the past, but their visions have not been realised simply because they lacked financial muscle.

Each of the milestones we looked at is remarkable in-and-of itself, but they are even more so when one views them in light of the bold plan that President Xi tabled for a new world order during the summit. Calling it the “Global Governance Initiative”, he pushed for a system that was more equitable and just for all people.

Seeing as these very objectives have been achieved to spectacular proportions within SCO, it will be much easier for countries looking on from outside to appreciate things. And of course, SCO nations will be more likely to push through the new step too.

The writer is a research fellow at the Development Watch Centre