Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping are in Kazakhstan on July 3 as part of a two-day summit for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which is poised to admit Belarus as a member.
The expected expansion of the club of Eurasian countries is part of another push from Beijing and Moscow to use the regional security bloc as a counterweight to promote alternatives to the Western institutions that make up the U.S.-led world order.
The annual SCO leaders summit in Astana will also provide a valuable platform for Putin as Russia’s war in Ukraine grinds well into its third year and the Russian leader is eager to showcase that he’s not internationally isolated.
Beyond adding Belarus, the summit is set to focus on better coordination for counterterrorism in the region, which remains high on the agenda for members following Moscow’s Crocus City Hall attack in April. The security situation in Afghanistan and a new mechanism for an investment fund proposed by Kazakhstan will also be discussed by leaders.
“The mandate for the SCO can be quite vague and far-reaching,” Eva Seiwert, an analyst at the Berlin-based MERICS think tank, told RFE/RL. “Officially speaking, this is a security organization that focuses on improving collaboration among its member states and building mutual trust throughout the region.”
The bloc was founded in 2001 with China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan as members with a focus on settling territorial disputes and has grown to tackle issues like regional security and economic development. The SCO added India and Pakistan in 2017, Iran in 2023, and is set to grow again with the addition of Belarus this year.
The SCO’s evolution over its 23-year history has largely been shaped by China and Russia’s evolving relationship.
At times, Moscow has looked to water down or block Chinese-led plans for the bloc, including proposals for a regional development bank and a free-trade zone. But as Xi and Putin have built stronger ties between their countries in recent years — especially since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine — the two leaders have more actively made the SCO a part of their broader cooperation together and a centerpiece of their shared anti-U.S. worldview.
“For a long time, China wanted to make sure that the SCO is not portrayed as an anti-Western organization, but this has changed, especially since Iran joined,” Seiwert said. “It’s becoming clear that the SCO doesn’t care so much about what the West thinks anymore.”
At a meeting of senior Russian officials in June, Putin spoke about the creation of “a new system of bilateral and multilateral guarantees of collective security in Eurasia,” with the help of existing organizations like the SCO, to work toward the gradual “phase out the military presence of external powers in the Eurasian region.”
Temur Umarov, a fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin, told RFE/RL that while the SCO is increasing its international visibility and geopolitical weight, it still remains an organization that is heavy on symbolism but light on substance.
“It’s still trying to figure out what it is now and what it can be,” he said. “At the end of the day, its main advantage is just the sheer size and its collective GDP, but there are still almost no substantial results.”
In the absence of a clear mandate, the SCO is largely serving as a diplomatic forum for regional leaders to get sought-after face time with Xi and Putin.
The Chinese leader arrived in Astana on July 2 for a one-day state visit with his Kazakh counterpart, Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev, and will travel to Tajikistan following the SCO summit for a separate state visit.
Xi and Putin are also set to have their own one-on-one meeting on July 4 on the sidelines of the summit, marking their second meeting this year.
Leaders and representatives from nonmember states like Azerbaijan, Qatar, Mongolia, the United Arab Emirates, Turkmenistan, and Turkey are also expected to attend, as is United Nation Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
Notably absent from this year’s summit is Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar attending in his place.
Niva Yau, a fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub, says that India appears to be losing interest in the SCO, in part due to New Delhi’s tense rivalry with Pakistan, but also over ongoing tensions with China amid a multiyear border dispute.
She says that this growing reticence from India may hamstring the bloc’s potential and Beijing’s future plans for it.
“It reduces the SCO’s global profile and limits some of China’s bigger plans,” she told RFE/RL.
