Shanghai Cooperation Organization held Tianjin Summit 2025, 25th Heads of State Council meeting of the SCO, from August 31 to September 1, 2025, in Tianjin, People's Republic of China. At the summit, China vowed to establish new cooperation platforms and centers on energy, green industry, digital economy, scientific and technological innovation, higher education, and vocational and technical education. Action plans were also developed to promote high-quality development, covering fields including energy, green industry, digital economy, artificial intelligence and tech innovation.(PHOTO: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, PRC)
Shanghai Cooperation Organ-ization (SCO) held Tianjin Summit 2025, 25th Heads of State Council meeting of the SCO, from August 31 to September 1, 2025, in Tianjin, People’s Republic of China. It was the largest summit in SCO’s history, and was the fifth time that China hosted the meeting.
This SCO Summit looks against U.S. President Donald Trump. +China plans to accelerate the creation of a development bank and set up an international platform for energy cooperation, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced on Sept. 1, at a summit that represents an emerging challenge to U.S. global leadership with the participation of Russia and India.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi were among the leaders meeting in Tianjin, in northern China, for the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
The security forum was originally seen as a foil to U.S. influence in Central Asia and has grown in size and influence over the years.
Xi is attempting to expand the scope of the SCO.
He announced initial plans for a development bank run by the organization, introduced a cooperation platform for green and energy industries and pledged USD1.4 billion in loans over the next three years to the organization’s members.
Xi also said he was opening the way for SCO member states to use China’s BeiDou satellite system, an alternative to the GPS system controlled by the U.S.
Putin expressed support for Xi’s initiatives, saying he believes the SCO “could take on the leading role in efforts to form a more just and equal system of global governance in the world.”
Laos joined the SCO as a partner, a designation short of full membership, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters. The combined group of members and partners has reached 27, representing countries in Central and Southeast Asia, along with China, India, Russia, Iran and others.
A development strategy for the SCO in the 2026-2035 period was approved during the summit, setting the tone and direction for the organization’s growth in the next decade, said Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.
The summit issued a statement defending the victorious outcomes of World War II. In a separate statement, the SCO expressed firm support for the multilateral trading system, he said when meeting the press together with SCO Secretary-General Nurlan Yermekbayev.
Four new SCO centers were inaugurated at the event with respective tasks of countering security threats and challenges, tackling transnational organized crimes, improving information security, and strengthening anti-drug cooperation, Wang said.
The member states also made a decision to establish an SCO development bank, which, Wang said, will greatly boost infrastructure development and economic and social progress among SCO countries.
At the summit, China vowed to establish new cooperation platforms and centers on energy, green industry, digital economy, scientific and technological innovation, higher education, and vocational and technical education. Action plans were also developed to promote high-quality development, covering fields including energy, green industry, digital economy, artificial intelligence and tech innovation, he added.
The summit also achieved break-throughs in the organization’s struc-tural reforms, including merging observer states and dialogue partners into SCO partners, and accepting Laos as a partner to make the SCO a 27-nation family, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said.
Xi stressed countries should reject Cold War thinking, rival power blocs and bullying and instead protect the U.N.-centered international system. He called for a world order with multiple power centers and a more just and balanced global governance system.
“The shadows of Cold War mentality, bullying, are not dissipating, and there are new challenges that are increasing, not diminishing,” said Xi, who has consistently spoken against what he calls a Cold War mentality, which is his way of referring to the tough approach to China by the U.S.
“The world has entered a new period of tumultuous change and global governance has arrived at a new crossroads,″ he said.
Putin echoed those themes in his own address and expressed support for Xi’s proposal “to create a new, more effective and functional system of global governance.” He said the SCO had restored “genuine multilateralism”, another veiled swipe towards the Western tariff chaos brought on by Washington this year. “This, in turn, lays the political and socio-economic groundwork for the formation of a new system of stability and security in Eurasia,” he said.
“This security system, unlike Euro-centric and Euro-Atlantic models, would genuinely consider the interests of a broad range of countries, be truly balanced, and would not allow one country to ensure its own security at the expense of others.”
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also joined leaders from Central Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Middle East in a show of Global South solidarity.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi cozied up to Russian strongman Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader-for-life Xi Jinping at a meeting. The Xi-some took place at the summit, which the Chinese said is aimed at challenging the West’s global influence.
All three leaders have found themselves spurned by President Trump – with India slammed with 50% tariffs last week as punishment for the country’s refusal to stop buying Russian oil.
“It is the right choice for both sides to be friends who have good neighborly and amicable ties, partners who enable each other’s success, and to have the dragon and the elephant dance together,” Xi said – a reference to the national symbols of both nations.
Add to the mix the Russian bear — and the three leaders expressed the need for economic unity while also discussing the future of the Ukraine war.
Putin and Modi appeared to be especially united in their efforts to woo Xi, with the two pictured riding inside the Russian president’s limo, holding hands, and repeatedly hugging throughout the day.
“Conversations with him are always insightful,” Modi wrote on X alongside a picture with Putin.
Putin returned the kind words, calling Modi a “dear friend” and boasting about Russia’s relationship with the world’s largest democracy at a time when most countries have shunned him for invading Ukraine.
One heavyweight leader is still yet to arrive — North Korea’s Kim Jong Un is taking a slow train to host city Tianjin for the summit. His presence — along with Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian — will complete the so-called “Axis of Upheaval” at the meeting.
Xi, who is leading the conference, stood beside Putin and Modi in criticizing the heavy sanctions levied against Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine and the punishing tariffs faced by India.
He specifically called the sanctions against Russia a clear sign of “bullying behavior” from the West, calling on his Shanghai block to unite.
“We must uphold the international system with the United Nations at its core and support the multilateral trading system with the World Trade Organization at its core,” the Chinese president said.
Xi aimed part of his comments on united economic prosperity at Modi, seeking to cool their once-hostile relationship — including a dispute over a remote region of the Himalayas that saw Chinese and Indian troops beating each other to death.
China is also a longtime ally of India’s nuclear-armed rival Pakistan.
India and China have started to restructure their relationship after Trump lashed out at India, with Modi now describing himself as a “partner” to China.
Xi, who has been accused of propping up Russia’s war machine, also urged the members of the SCO to boost trade and investment deals among each other, with China promising to provide USD280 million in foreign aid to member states this year.
The bloc, which originally began with six nations, has expanded to 10 permanent members and 16 dialogue and observer countries in recent years, forming what Beijing has dubbed the “Global South,” a group of developing countries in the southern hemisphere.
Xi, Modi and Putin were seen chatting away during the conference, which included talks between the three on the war in Ukraine.
Putin touted Xi’s leadership during the conference and thanked both the Chinese and Indian leaders for efforts in “facilitating the resolution of the Ukrainian crisis.”
Putin then reiterated claims that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 was not the inciting factor of the war, which has grown to become the bloodiest conflict in Europe since World War II.
Instead, Putin insisted that the conflict was “a result of a coup in Ukraine, which was supported and provoked by the West.”
“The second reason for the crisis is the West’s constant attempts to drag Ukraine into NATO,” the Russian president added.
Moscow’s aggression in Ukraine ramped up in 2014 following the Revolution of Dignity, which saw the ouster of pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych over years of alleged, deep-rooted corruption in Kyiv.
Russia would go on to invade Ukraine and illegally annex Crimea, one of the regions still under contention in the heated peace-talks.
Against a backdrop of U.S. tariff volatility and perceived policy unpredictability, the SCO summit positioned China as a more dependable economic and strategic partner for many regional players.
The SCO began in 1996 as a security bloc, dubbed the “Shanghai Five”. It was formed by China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to settle their border disputes following the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union. Afghanistan and Mongolia are observer states, and 14 other countries, including several from the Middle East, serve as “dialogue partners.”
But in June 2001, the group evolved into the SCO, including Uzbekistan, with headquarters in Beijing. In 2017, the group expanded to include India and Pakistan. Iran in 2023 and Belarus in 2024 were also added as full members.
In addition, the organisation has 14 key dialogue partners, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkiye, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Cambodia.
SCO member states account for 43% of the world’s population, and 23% of the global economy.★
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