At the threshold of growth and maturity

The SCO Bishkek Summit will show that multilateralism underpinned by the Shanghai Spirit can give the Global South a public good balancing security and development

President Xi Jinping is attending the Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, and paying state visits to Kyrgyzstan and Egypt from Aug 30 to Sept 3.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the SCO's founding. It is also the first time since the SCO Tianjin Summit in 2025 adopted a development strategy for the organization in the next decade (2026-35) that clearly states that member states will uphold the Shanghai Spirit, adhere to mutually beneficial cooperation, help each other succeed, and make more contributions to building a multipolar world.

As the regional international organization with the broadest geographic coverage and the largest population in the world, the SCO has grown into a family of 27 participating countries, with cooperation across more than 50 sectors and a combined GDP approaching $30 trillion. With regional hotspots persisting and non-traditional security threats becoming constant, whether the Bishkek Summit can offer SCO wisdom for the new challenges facing global governance is drawing close attention.

Recent years have seen the boundary between traditional and non-traditional security threats increasingly blurred, with the two overlapping and amplifying each other. Traditional crises, represented by the Ukraine crisis, have yet to see any substantive breakthrough, while the US and Israeli military strikes against Iran since February have sharply aggravated the Middle East situation. Meanwhile, non-traditional threats such as climate anomalies have evolved from sporadic events into standing global crises: Europe was hit this summer by one of the strongest heat waves on record, with temperatures repeatedly topping 40 degrees Celsius in some areas, while southern Africa was battered by torrential rains. Such extreme weather poses a severe test to infrastructure, agricultural production and public safety worldwide.

In response, the SCO has demonstrated a strong sense of responsibility and strategic resolve, advancing solid work on multiple fronts. Following the outbreak of the Iran crisis, it acted swiftly, upholding international law and providing moral and political support. It stated its position through a statement in March and again through a foreign ministers' statement on July 24, and played a constructive role in preventing the regional situation from spiraling out of control. Security cooperation is shifting from ad hoc joint operations to institutionalized functioning. Four new SCO centers for countering security threats and challenges, tackling transnational organized crimes, improving information security, and strengthening anti-drug cooperation were inaugurated at the Tianjin Summit.

Green transition is also quickening. The statement on sustainable energy development issued in Tianjin coordinates green cooperation at the level of national strategy. SCO member states are accelerating renewable energy development and cross-border energy networks, with projects such as the Zhanatas wind power plant as part of the China-Kazakhstan production capacity cooperation framework delivering tangible results. In 2024, the SCO signed a memorandum of cooperation with the United Nations Environment Programme serving as the foundation for cooperation in the field of environmental protection. On financial security, the Tianjin Summit announced 2 billion yuan ($296.64 million) in grant assistance and 10 billion yuan in new loans to member banks of the SCO Interbank Consortium over the next three years, while local-currency settlement continues to expand.

Looking ahead to the 2026 Bishkek Summit, and in light of the five priority areas proposed by Kyrgyzstan, the rotating chair — security, economy, digitization, ecology and sustainable development, and cultural as well as people-to-people exchanges — the summit is expected to deliver visible results in the following areas.

First, the four security centers are expected to move faster toward operational readiness. The summit is expected to turn principled consensus on new threats such as cybercrime and drug trafficking into capacity-building programs. The initiative to establish an emergency assistance fund is also expected to make it onto the agenda, providing a rapid-response mechanism for glacier melting, natural disasters and technological accidents.

Second, new areas such as the digital economy and green transition are expected to yield a fresh list of concrete deliverables. Digital transformation has become a shared endeavor, and initiatives such as the SCO Youth Forum in the Digital Sphere have received a positive response. Implementation arrangements for already-launched green transition projects, and the AI application cooperation center are expected to see new progress on the basis of the Tianjin Declaration.

Third, financial support and connectivity are expected to advance in tandem, in both "hardware" and "software". The SCO is expected to speed up the establishment of an effective financial mechanism to support large-scale infrastructure, transport and technology projects, as well as small and medium-sized enterprises. Four rounds of consultations have been held on the SCO Development Bank; consensus on its governance structure and first areas of support would significantly enhance the organization's financing capacity. Efforts can also be stepped up to advance projects such as the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan Railway and the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route, strengthening the physical connectivity in the Eurasia region.

Fourth, people-to-people exchanges and youth cooperation are expected to produce a new matrix of flagship programs. Member states can use sporting events such as the Sixth World Nomad Games and the Issyk-Kul SCO Marathon to promote mutual learning among civilizations through nomadic culture and sports tourism. The youth digital forum can echo China's commitments, starting in 2026, and new Luban Workshops can foster composite cooperation combining cultural experience, digital skills and youth entrepreneurship, thereby consolidating the social foundation among member states.

Through 25 years of trials and hardships, the SCO now stands at the threshold of growth and maturity. The Bishkek Summit will once again demonstrate that, in a world of intertwined turbulence and transformation, multilateral cooperation underpinned by the Shanghai Spirit can provide the Eurasian continent — and indeed the entire Global South — with a public good that balances security and development and reconciles traditional agendas with emerging fields. That is precisely why the summit is so timely.

The author is an assistant researcher at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China.

The author contributed this article to China Watch, a think tank powered by China Daily. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

Contact the editor at editor@chinawatch.cn.