Leaders of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) have gathered in Bishkek for a summit focused on trade, investment and transport as the group marks 25 years since its creation.
SCO leaders have condemned strikes on Iran at a summit chaired by Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, marking the bloc's 25th anniversary.
The SCO said it condemned “military strikes on the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran," noting these had resulted in multiple civilian casualties and harmed Iran's economy.
Leaders adopted the Bishkek Declaration, alongside roughly 27 other agreements, at the summit.
The declaration reaffirmed the 10 member states' commitment to international law and the United Nations Charter and called for strengthening the UN's role in maintaining international peace and security, and advancing sustainable development.
It also backed what members described as a more representative and just multipolar world order, while calling for reforms to global governance that would give states a more equal role in decision-making.
Other agreements adopted covered anti-narcotics and information security cooperation, a ports and logistics roadmap, a 'Green Technology Corridor,' and an AI framework.
The SCO comprises 10 member states: Belarus, China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
“The South Caucasus is becoming a zone of peace,” Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said at the SCO plus meeting in Bishkek.
“A little more than a year ago, Azerbaijan and Armenia put an end to a conflict that had lasted for more than 30 years by initialling the text of a peace agreement,” Aliyev said. “Thus, the South Caucasus, which had been a zone of conflicts for many years, is becoming a zone of peace.”
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said Armenia is making progress towards establishing interstate relations with Azerbaijan and Türkiye, highlighting efforts to normalise regional ties during remarks at the SCO Plus meeting.
Pashinyan said a peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan was creating opportunities to reopen transport links and strengthen regional connectivity.
He added that Armenia was working on opening communications with both Azerbaijan and Türkiye, including through the TRIPP project, which he said could create new transport corridors linking the Caspian region with the Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf with the Black Sea.
The SCO can be an important format for securing the energy supply and establishing safe transport corridors, Türkiye's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said, describing the organisation as a "rising star."
“Climate change, irregular migration, terrorism, transnational crime and food insecurity now pose serious threats to many countries and Türkiye is committed to doing its part in combatting the adverse effects of climate change across the world," he added.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said the SCO format is in keeping with the country's regional foreign policy aims in comments at the SCO summit in Bishkek.
“We regard the organisation that brings together the Middle East and Asia Pacific regions on a common platform as complementary to the United Nations. Above all, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation embodies a structure that is aligned with our regional foreign policy that places regional ownership at its core," he said.
Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian has said the world is experiencing the dismantling of the foundations of the international order, in remarks at the SCO summit in Bishkek.
"Today we are experiencing an erosion of the foundations upon which international order is built," he said, signalling out the U.S. and Israel's attacks against Iran, including the killing of ex-Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
"If such actions are met with no effective response from the international community, what state can be certain that its sovereignty and security will be protected in the future against the use of force?"
He added that the distribution of political, economic and technological power in the world was undergoing "profound" transformations and said that institutions such as the United Nations should reform to take account of this.
Recent developments indicate the movement towards a multipolar international order, Tajikistan's President Emomali Rahmon has said, in remarks at the SCO summit in Bishkek.
"The existence of multiple centres of political influence is an important condition for advancing a political pluralism on the international stage," he said.
Countries should make more use of regional organisations to achieve the United Nations sustainable development goals, Uzbekistan's President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has said in remarks at the SCO summit in Bishkek.
"Solutions successfully applied in one region remain unknown in another... I propose establishing an open bank of inter-regional projects in the fields of natural resource management, digital services and healthcare," he said.
Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev said he met with heads of state from governments on the sidelines of the SCO meeting in the Kyrgyzstan capital Bishkek. In a photo posted on X, Aliyev can be seen shaking hands with multiple leaders.
Speaking at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov said the group had grown from a border confidence-building mechanism into a major international organisation over the past 25 years.
Japarov highlighted the SCO’s growing global weight, saying its members represent more than 40 per cent of the world’s population and around a quarter of global GDP.
He said Kyrgyzstan’s chairmanship was centred on sustainable peace, development and prosperity, describing unity as the foundation of the organisation’s “Shanghai spirit”.
Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan Hikmet Hajiyev met Armenia’s Security Council Secretary Alen Simonyan to continue discussions on the peace agenda between the two countries.
Hajiyev said on X that the talks followed a meeting between Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in Bishkek. The two leaders discussed the peace process and efforts to normalise relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
The latest discussions come as Baku and Yerevan seek to build on recent progress towards a lasting peace agreement, following decades of conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh. Outstanding issues include border arrangements and the establishment of diplomatic relations.
Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov welcomes Russian President Vladimir Putin, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and Tajik President Emomali Rahmon ahead of the SCO summit session in Bishkek.
SCO Secretary-General Nurlan Yermekbayev and leaders from member states, including China's Xi Jinping, Russia's Vladimir Putin, India's Narendra Modi and Iran's Masoud Pezeshkian, pose for a family photo ahead of a session of the SCO summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, speaking at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, says Iran is ready to reciprocate immediately if the U.S. returns to its commitments under a June interim deal.
Leaders of China, Russia, India and other SCO members are meeting in Bishkek for the organisation’s 25th-anniversary summit, with economic cooperation, trade, investment and regional connectivity among the key issues.
The meeting is chaired by Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov and is expected to conclude with the Bishkek Declaration.
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