SCO: Modi’s Security Line Meets Xi-Putin Push

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s 26th summit in Bishkek brought its competing priorities into sharp focus.

For India, terrorism and regional security remained the central concerns. Prime Minister Narendra Modi reiterated India’s zero-tolerance position on terrorism and warned that the consequences of the West Asia conflict would extend well beyond the region.

“The crisis in West Asia has demonstrated that a conflict in a specific region does not remain confined to that area alone,” he said, pointing to its impact on energy security, maritime trade and supply chains.

The Bishkek Declaration condemned terrorism in all forms and rejected what member states described as double standards in combating terrorism, separatist and extremist organisations. That aligns with India’s longstanding argument that counterterrorism efforts cannot distinguish between groups on political grounds.

Modi also linked Afghanistan to the SCO’s vision of a peaceful and secure Eurasia. “Our shared aspiration for a peaceful and secure Eurasia is also linked to peace and stability in Afghanistan,” he said.

India, he added, has provided development and humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan and will continue those efforts. For New Delhi, Afghanistan remains tied to concerns over terrorism, extremism, narcotics trafficking and regional connectivity.

India also secured support for initiatives involving young scientists, young authors and cultural dialogue. SCO leaders welcomed the SCO Civilization Dialogue Forum, scheduled to be held in India in autumn 2026. A protocol amending the SCO Charter and changes to its working framework were also adopted, with the changes expected to provide India greater scope to participate in the organisation’s evolving institutional structure.

China brought a broader economic and technological agenda to the summit. President Xi Jinping called for deeper SCO cooperation on trade, investment, connectivity, energy, artificial intelligence, the digital economy and green industries. China announced an international AI application cooperation centre for SCO countries, 100 technology cooperation projects over three years and a China-SCO port economic cooperation centre in Tianjin.

Xi also called for a more equitable global governance system and a stronger SCO role in addressing security challenges, including terrorism, separatism, extremism, organised crime and drug trafficking. His approach puts economic development, technology and connectivity alongside security as pillars of the organisation’s future.

Russia pushed a different but related economic agenda. President Vladimir Putin called for stronger trade and investment among SCO members and greater use of national currencies, saying Russia’s trade with SCO countries exceeded $400 billion in 2025 and national currencies accounted for more than 98% of Russia’s transactions with SCO members.

Putin also backed an SCO Development Bank independent of Western-dominated financial mechanisms. The proposal is particularly relevant to Russia and Iran, both subject to wide-ranging Western sanctions, although the bank remains a proposal rather than an established SCO institution.

Iran used the summit to press for greater economic cooperation of its own. President Masoud Pezeshkian argued that regional security should rest on cooperation, sovereignty and opposition to coercion, while proposing an SCO development bank, an export and investment insurance union and an energy consortium. The summit’s condemnation of strikes on Iran also brought Tehran’s security concerns into the discussions.

Advertisement

The wider summit package strengthened cooperation against terrorism and transnational crime through new regulations for the Universal Centre for Countering Challenges and Threats to the Security of SCO Member States, programmes on synthetic drugs and addiction through 2030, and a protocol amending the 2010 agreement on cooperation against crime.

Transport connectivity was another major theme. An action plan for developing ports and logistics centres for 2026-2030 was approved, while Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for secure transport and energy corridors and greater alignment between the Trans-Caspian Middle Corridor and China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

The summit also adopted measures covering climate change, energy efficiency, green technology, information security and emergency assistance, extending the SCO’s agenda well beyond traditional security.

That expansion, however, has not erased the different priorities of its major members.

India is using the SCO to press terrorism, Afghanistan and regional security while expanding its Eurasian engagement. China is emphasising trade, technology and connectivity; Russia is pushing financial mechanisms less dependent on the West; and Iran is seeking stronger economic and institutional backing.

The Bishkek Declaration accommodates all these priorities without resolving the differences behind them. That may be the clearest picture of the SCO today: a grouping with an increasingly broad agenda, but no single strategic agenda shared by all its major powers.