Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi attend a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in China.

Leaders Gather in Tianjin for Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit

More than 20 leaders, including Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Russian President Vladimir Putin, have gathered in Tianjin, China, for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit. The event, which is being held until Monday, marks the largest gathering of the SCO since its founding in 2001.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is hosting the summit, met with several leaders during the event, including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The gathering comes days after India was hit by a sharp increase in US tariffs on its goods as punishment for New Delhi's purchases of Russian oil.

The SCO summit is taking place amidst tight security, with a forthcoming military parade in Beijing to mark 80 years since the end of World War II scheduled to take place. President Xi Jinping also met with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet in Tianjin on Saturday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Tianjin on Sunday with an entourage of senior politicians and business representatives. Putin is expected to hold talks with Turkey's Erdogan and Iran's Pezeshkian on Monday about the Ukraine conflict and Tehran's nuclear program respectively.

The SCO comprises China, India, Russia, Pakistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Belarus, with 16 more countries affiliated as observers or "dialogue partners." Experts suggest that China and Russia are using platforms like the SCO to curry favor with non-Western countries and present the SCO as a non-Western-led power bloc promoting a new type of international relations.

Lim Tai Wei, a professor and East Asia expert at Japan's Soka University, stated that Russia needs the benefits of the SCO as a player on the world stage and the support of the second largest economy in the world. He also noted that Russia is also keen to win over India, and India's trade frictions with the United States present an opportunity.

The two most populous nations, India and China, are intense rivals competing for influence across South Asia, and fought a deadly border clash in 2020. However, a thaw began last October, when Modi met with Xi for the first time in five years at a summit in Russia.

The leaders meeting with President Xi Jinping on Monday at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit include Putin, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Modi, Erdoğan, and others from member and observer states. This follows the 2025 SCO summit held in Tianjin, China, where extensive bilateral talks were conducted among these leaders to continue discussions.

Putin stated in an interview that the summit will "strengthen the SCO's capacity to respond to contemporary challenges and threats, and consolidate solidarity across the shared Eurasian space." The SCO has the potential to play a significant role in shaping the geopolitical landscape of the region in the years to come.