Pakistan is set to take over the rotating chairmanship of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation after the bloc’s leaders meet in Bishkek. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif arrived on Friday to attend the SCO Council of Heads of State meeting and SCO Plus Summit, which run until 2 September.
Pakistan joined the SCO as an observer in 2005 and became the first observer state to apply for full membership, in 2010. Islamabad then signed the SCO Memorandum of Obligations in 2016 and became a full member in June 2017, at the summit in Astana, Kazakhstan, alongside India.
The organisation gives Pakistan a forum that brings together China, Russia, India, Iran and the Central Asian states.
Its importance for Pakistan goes beyond diplomacy. The bloc’s focus on trade, transport, energy and connectivity overlaps with Pakistan’s efforts to expand links with landlocked Central Asian states and position its ports and road networks as routes toward the Arabian Sea.
Connectivity is a particular focus for Pakistan.
At the 2025 SCO summit in Tianjin, China, Sharif backed the organisation’s emphasis on regional connectivity and economic integration and highlighted the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor as a route towards wider trade and economic links across the region.
Security is another major pillar for Pakistan. The SCO’s Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure, or RATS, is one of its two permanent bodies, alongside the Secretariat in Beijing. Pakistan is chairing RATS during the 2025 -26 period, with cooperation covering counterterrorism and related security threats.
Pakistan has hosted SCO meetings and exercises since becoming a full member. In 2021, it hosted the first SCO joint counterterrorism exercise involving physical participation by counterterrorism forces from Pakistan and China. It has also been permanent chair of the Special Working Group on Poverty Alleviation since its creation in 2022.
In July 2026, Islamabad again hosted the SCO meeting of heads of border services, attended by representatives of all 10 member states and the RATS executive committee.
Pakistan will chair the Council of Heads of State for 2026-27, with the next SCO leaders’ summit due to be held in Islamabad in 2027. The council is the organisation’s highest decision-making forum, responsible for its broad political, security and strategic direction.
The Bishkek handover now puts Pakistan at the helm of the SCO’s highest political forum at a time when the bloc is expanding cooperation on security, trade and regional transport links. For Islamabad, the test of the year ahead will be whether that chairmanship can translate into deeper economic and connectivity links with the wider Eurasian region.
In Bishkek, Sharif will also be holding bilateral meetings with participating leaders and will meet Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov on 2 September for talks covering trade, investment, energy and regional connectivity.
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