THE Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit in Tianjin, China, from August 31 to September 1, 2025, is the Organization’s largest gathering of heads of state to date.

It occurred amid changing regional geopolitics and realignments in international politics. The gathering of over 20 countries from Eurasia and the Middle East is being seen as a powerful demonstration of solidarity among the Global South during the rapid transformation of global geopolitics.

The steady shift from unipolarity to multipolarity, which is now the catchphrase of both President Xi Jinping and President Putin, was validated at the Summit. President Xi demonstrated his country’s leadership of a large coalition of like-minded nations that oppose the hitherto US-led international order. On August 31, 2025, while speaking at the SCO welcome banquet, he opined that the Organization has “become an important force in building a new type of international relations and a community with a shared future for humanity.”

Founded in Shanghai in 2001 with just six members – Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan – the SCO has grown rapidly over the past decade. India and Pakistan joined it in 2017, Iran in 2023 and Belarus in 2024. In addition to ten full member states, the SCO also........

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