When the leaders of ten countries lined up for the group photo in Tianjin on September 1, 2025, it marked the end of the largest summit the Shanghai Cooperation Organization had ever held. The 25th gathering ran over August 31 and September 1, hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping, and drew the heads of all ten member states, including Belarus, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan alongside China.
It reached well past the members. Under the SCO+ format, leaders from observer and dialogue-partner countries joined, among them Mongolia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Türkiye and Egypt, as did the heads of bodies such as the UN, ASEAN and the AIIB. Egypt’s prime minister, Mostafa Madbouly, took part at the highest level for the first time, The Media Line noted.
Xi and Putin
Xi cast the SCO as a pillar of stability. “We should advocate for equal and orderly multipolarization of the world,” he told delegates. He pledged $280 million in aid to member states this year, plus $1.4 billion in loans through an SCO banking consortium.
Vladimir Putin used his turn to blame NATO and Western governments for provoking the war in Ukraine. He urged members to build economic ties outside Western systems, floating joint bonds, a unified payment network and a new bank for shared investment projects. “These steps will reduce reliance on Western financial systems,” he said.
India and Pakistan, side by side
Narendra Modi named his priorities as security, connectivity and opportunity, and said “no double standards on terror will be acceptable.” Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, condemned state-sponsored terrorism and said Islamabad had “irrefutable evidence” of foreign involvement in the Jafar Express hostage incident. Neither man named the other’s country. The summit came months after the two countries’ border war in May 2025, and Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry had said beforehand that no bilateral meeting would be held.
China and India did hold direct leader-level talks on the sidelines, the first since the Galwan border clash, according to the Eurasian Research Institute. A meeting of the presidents of China, India and Russia drew heavy media attention.
What came out of it
The Tianjin Declaration and the SCO Development Strategy 2035 were the main documents. The declaration condemned the military action against Iran by Israel and the United States and called for UN reform, including the Security Council. Members signed agreements to set up a Comprehensive Center for Responding to Security Threats and Challenges and an SCO Anti-Drug Center, with the first placed in Tashkent and the second in Dushanbe. An SCO Development Bank was put forward as a step toward changing the financial order.
Expansion stalled. Laos received dialogue-partner status, but Azerbaijan and Armenia were not admitted. According to the institute, India blocked Azerbaijan’s application at Russia’s request, while Pakistan opposed Armenia’s bid.
Analysts quoted by The Media Line saw limits. The SCO has no collective defense structure, and one analyst, Aimen Jamil, said the summit offered “a rare opportunity for indirect engagement” between India and Pakistan but could not settle their core disputes. Kim Jong Un skipped the Tianjin sessions but was confirmed for the military parade in Beijing later that week, where Putin was also expected.
Sources
- SCO TIANJIN Summit 2025: Priorities and Challenges | Eurasian Research Institute
- Iran Rallies SCO Toward ‘Look East’ Bloc as Xi and Putin Turn on West – The Media Line
