Olusegun Ariyo
Chinese President Xi Jinping on Sunday welcomed heads of state from Iran, Turkey, Russia, India and other Eurasian nations for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, placing Beijing at the centre of a high-profile gathering of regional powers.
The two-day summit, taking place in the northern port city of Tianjin, brings together leaders and representatives from nearly 20 countries.
Among those in attendance are Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The SCO, founded in 2001, counts China, Russia, India, Pakistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Belarus as full members, with 16 additional nations serving as observers or dialogue partners.
This year’s meeting is the largest since the bloc’s inception.
Putin arrived in Tianjin on Sunday, accompanied by senior officials and business executives.
He is expected to meet with Erdogan and Pezeshkian on Monday to discuss the war in Ukraine and Iran’s nuclear program.
The summit comes just days before Beijing stages a major military parade marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, an event North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is also expected to attend.
China and Russia have long promoted the SCO as a counterbalance to Western-led alliances such as NATO.
This year’s talks are the first since U.S. President Donald Trump returned to the White House, adding further weight to the bloc’s deliberations on regional security and economic cooperation.
