Eurasian nations gather in Bishkek to forge stronger ties, new alliances
The annual Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit is gathering a diverse group of world leaders from 21 countries in Kyrgyzstan’s capital Bishkek, as they pursue new alliances, ambitions and opportunities with the rise of regional powers in the rapidly evolving multipolar Eurasia.
The SCO’s 10 members — China, India, Pakistan, Russia, Belarus, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan — speak for more than 40% of the world's population.
The bloc increasingly bills itself as an alternative to a Western-led order, as it is joined by leaders of at least 15 states as “dialogue partners,” spanning Central Asia and the rest of the continent, the South Caucasus, as well as the Middle East, including Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Vietnam, as well as Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Armenia.
China’s Xi Jinping, India’s Narendra Modi, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, together with other presidents and prime ministers, including Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian as well as UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, arrived in Bishkek on Monday to hold a series of bilateral meetings and later attending the opening of the World Nomad Games, a traditional Central Asian sports and culture event.
https://www.euronews.com/2026/08/31/eurasian-nations-gather-in-bishkek-to-forge-...