Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and more than a dozen other leaders will attend the annual Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on Monday.
The organization is not officially an anti-Western coalition, but Russia and China use its meetings to promote their vision of creating a multipolar world and criticize Western policies. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization currently has 10 permanent members and 15 dialogue partners.
Iranian President Masoud Pezzekian and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will also attend the meeting. Pezzekian is scheduled to have a bilateral meeting with Putin on the sidelines of the meeting. Iran will become a member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in 2023.
India and Pakistan are also permanent members of the organization, and the leaders of both countries will attend the meeting. The organization claims that its members and partners represent about 40 percent of the world’s population and 25 percent of the world’s gross domestic product.
The meeting comes as US Treasury Secretary Scott Besant, criticizing China’s $1.2 trillion trade surplus, said Washington will ask G20 members to reexamine trade terms with China.
