The real test for the SCO is whether it can be effective in addressing the security and economic challenges confronting the region

Prime Minister Narendra Modi begins a four-day Central Asian trip on August 29 with a state visit to Uzbekistan, ahead of the twenty-sixth Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Bishkek on August 31-September 1. The timing is apt: the SCO turns twenty-five this year, and the region is more volatile than ever before. In Tashkent, on his fourth visit to Uzbekistan, the agenda is familiar: trade, investment, defence, digital connectivity, energy and education. What is new is the framing - aligning India’s Viksit Bharat 2047 with Uzbekistan’s own 2030 vision, alongside symbolic stops at the Lal Bahadur Shastri memorial and the Gandhi Centre at Tashkent State University.

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