Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President 
Xi Jinping are expected in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek for a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit opening Monday, August 31, where the two are due to hold talks. Around a dozen heads of state are heading to the two-day gathering, which marks 25 years of the bloc, Channel News Asia reported. Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian, India's Narendra Modi and Pakistan's Shehbaz Sharif are also due at a plenary session chaired by Kyrgyz leader Sadyr Japarov.
What will the two leaders discuss? Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said the talks would cover further development of bilateral cooperation and the most important international issues, Taiwan's Central News Agency reported, citing Russia's Sputnik news agency. He said Moscow regarded the meeting as very important and that it would be the two leaders' second personal contact this year. Putin will hold nine bilateral meetings during the summit, which runs to September 1, including one with Pezeshkian, Ushakov said. Their first meeting this year came when Putin visited China.
What else is on Xi's programme? Besides attending the summit, Xi will make a state visit to Kyrgyzstan, the Central News Agency reported. In a signed article in local media on the eve of the trip, he said the two countries should consolidate good-neighbourly friendship, upgrade practical cooperation and clearly oppose hegemonism, unilateralism and bloc confrontation.
What is the backdrop? The summit comes four-and-a-half years into Moscow's invasion of Ukraine and six months into the war between Washington and Tehran. Russia and Iran, among the most sanctioned states in the world, have massively deepened their military and economic ties during the Ukraine war, Channel News Asia reported. In August the US imposed secondary sanctions on Iran's trading partners in sectors including gold, technology and maritime transport, and China, a major importer of Iranian oil, responded that it would "firmly defend" its interests.
How united is the bloc? The SCO's founding declaration says the group is "not an alliance directed against other states". At last year's gathering, however, Putin accused Western countries of provoking the Ukraine war, while Xi denounced "acts of intimidation", a reference to US-Chinese tensions. The bloc, which claims to represent some 40 per cent of the world's population and 25 per cent of global GDP, remains diverse, with Russia and China competing for influence in Central Asia and Beijing at times having strained relations with India and Pakistan, Channel News Asia reported.
Figures referenced: Xi Jinping. — JudgeMarket.
