Diplomacy

The 2026 Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Heads of State summit takes place from Tuesday, September 1, in Bishkek. It is being hosted by the president of Kyrgyzstan, Sadyr Japarov, who currently holds the SCO chair. High-level meetings will also be held in the SCO Plus format. The SCO summit will be attended by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko; Chinese President Xi Jinping; Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi; Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian; Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev; Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif; Russian President Vladimir Putin; Tajik President Emomali Rahmon; Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev; as well as  Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev; Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan; Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khürelsükh; Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Togo Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé; Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan; Laos President Thongloun Sisoulith; the Vice President of Vietnam Võ Thị Ánh Xuân; and the Deputy Prime Minister of Egypt Hussein Issa. Representatives of international organisations include UN Secretary-General António Guterres; CIS Secretary-General Sergei Lebedev; CSTO Secretary-General Taalatbek Masadykov; Chairman of the Board of the Eurasian Economic Commission Bakytzhan Sagintaev; and Secretary General of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia Kairat Sarybay. The member-state session brings together Belarus, China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Combined, these ten SCO countries have a collective GDP (PPP) of about 36% of the global total (US$80 trillion) and a population of about 3.4 billion. They will discuss pressing issues on the international and regional agenda and priority areas for the SCO’s development, as well as prospects for deepening cooperation in the political, trade and economic, transport and logistics, digital, environmental, cultural and humanitarian spheres. Following the meeting, a ‘Bishkek Declaration’, marking the 25th anniversary of the SCO, as well as documents and decisions aimed at further strengthening multifaceted cooperation and improving the organisation’s activities, will be signed. A number of thematic statements by the heads of state will also be adopted. At the expanded SCO Plus format, participants will exchange views on strengthening the central coordinating role of the United Nations and international law, as well as promoting sustainable development and expanding mutually beneficial cooperation.

Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and Armenian prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan are expected to meet in Bishkek next week on the margins of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov confirmed this according to the Russian agency, TASS. “We will have a conversation with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. Our leaders have already spoken following the elections held in Armenia, so it is fairly clear what the conversation will be about,” Ushakov said. He added that, among other issues, the leaders will discuss Yerevan’s aspiration to join the EU and its cooperation with the Eurasian Economic Union. “We continue to insist that Armenia cannot aspire to EU membership while at the same time receiving enormous benefits from its cooperation within the Eurasian Economic Union. This issue must somehow be resolved. And the President and the Prime Minister will undoubtedly discuss it,” Ushakov said. The meeting comes as Russia continues to put unprecedented pressure on Armenia. Using very undiplomatic language, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, on Friday (28 August), called on Pashinyan to stop shifting responsibility for Armenia's problems onto Russia and the CSTO. In 2022, the Armenian Prime Minister personally refused the deployment of the organization's mission, opting instead for Western mediation in Prague, where he officially recognized Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan, recalled the official representative of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Yerevan's attempts to blame Moscow, the church, or its own citizens for the consequences of its own decisions are shameless and contradict historical facts, Zakharova emphasized. "Everyone is to blame in your view. Only you are not to blame." "Nikol Vovayevich, elections in your country have ended. You can stop hanging noodles on the ears of your people. Gather your courage and tell the truth at least once, as it actually happened," wrote Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova, addressing Nikol Pashinyan’s statements yesterday. The five-year program of the Armenian government released this week, only speaks of releations with Russia as a "partnership" and omits the previously used term "strategic alliance". Pashinyan told the Armenian parliament this week, "The events of September 2022 took place right before your eyes. A strategic partnership should mean a strategic partnership. If we write 'strategic partnership' in the document now, you will ask why Russia and the CSTO did not fulfill their security obligations in September 2022. What else do I need to tell you?"