Twenty-eight documents were signed at the anniversary summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Bishkek, the Kyrgyz presidential press service reported.
The summit took place in Bishkek on September 1 under the chairmanship of Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov. He said SCO member states account for more than 40% of the world’s population and around a quarter of global GDP. Russian President Vladimir Putin put the bloc’s weight higher, saying its member states are home to nearly half of the global population and generate more than one-third of global output.
The SCO has 10 members: Belarus, China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Leaders of all member states attended the summit, where they discussed plans for new security institutions, expanded counter-narcotics cooperation, digitalisation, environmental policy and logistics.
The summit’s principal political document was the Bishkek Declaration, marking the SCO’s 25th anniversary. The heads of state also approved a protocol amending the SCO Charter, adopted on June 7, 2002.
The signed package also included:
- Regulations for a Universal Centre for Countering Challenges and Threats to the Security of SCO Member States.
- Regulations for the Executive Committee of the SCO Anti-Drug Centre, which will include a Centre for Countering Transnational Organised Crime to be established in Bishkek.
- Two counter-narcotics programmes through 2030: one targeting drug addiction, and another coordinating measures against synthetic drugs and their precursors.
- A 2026–2028 cooperation plan on international information security.
- A 2026–2030 action plan to develop ports and logistics hubs across SCO countries.
- Other agreements and decisions.
Kyrgyzstan formally handed the SCO chairmanship to Pakistan during the summit.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation was founded in June 2001, when the leaders of Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan signed its founding declaration. Membership had expanded to 10 states by 2026. Afghanistan and Mongolia hold observer status, while 15 countries are SCO dialogue partners: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Cambodia, Egypt, Kuwait, Laos, the Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
