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SCO to Hold 25th-Anniversary Summit in Bishkek on 31 August-1 September — UPSC Current Affairs 2026

Summits & Conferences26 Aug 2026

SCO to Hold 25th-Anniversary Summit in Bishkek on 31 August-1 September

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1
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation will hold its Heads of State summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on 31 August and 1 September 2026.
2
Kyrgyzstan holds the SCO's rotating chairmanship for 2026 and has set the theme '25 Years of the SCO: Together Towards Sustainable Peace, Development and Prosperity'.
3
The summit marks 25 years since the SCO was founded at Shanghai in June 2001.
4
Proposals on the table include an International Centre for Combating Organised Crime and an SCO Development Bank, alongside cyber security and transport connectivity.
5
The SCO has 10 full members; India and Pakistan joined in 2017, Iran in 2023 and Belarus in 2024.

●Event: Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Heads of State summit, 2026
●Venue: Bishkek, capital of Kyrgyzstan
●Dates: 31 August - 1 September 2026
●Theme: '25 Years of the SCO: Together Towards Sustainable Peace, Development and Prosperity'
●Chair for 2026: Kyrgyzstan, which took over the rotating presidency after the 2025 Tianjin summit
●Occasion: the SCO's 25th anniversary
●Indian participation: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is slated to attend

Founded

15 June 2001, at Shanghai, growing out of the Shanghai Five grouping of 1996

Full members (2026)

10 - India, China, Russia, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Iran and Belarus

Secretariat

Beijing, China

Secretary-General

Nurlan Yermekbayev of Kazakhstan, in office since 1 January 2025

Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS)

Headquartered at Tashkent, Uzbekistan

India's entry

Full member since 2017, along with Pakistan

Latest entrants

Iran in 2023, Belarus in 2024

July 2023

India hosted the summit, held in virtual format from New Delhi. Iran was admitted as a full member.

July 2024

Astana, Kazakhstan. Belarus was admitted as the tenth full member.

31 August - 1 September 2025

Tianjin, China - the 25th summit of the SCO Heads of State Council. Kyrgyzstan took over the chairmanship afterwards.

31 August - 1 September 2026

Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan - the summit marking the SCO's 25th anniversary.

●Counter-terrorism, and the SCO's long-standing focus on the 'three evils' of terrorism, separatism and extremism
●A proposed International Centre for Combating Organised Crime, to coordinate action on cross-border crime
●Deeper cooperation on cybercrime and digital security threats
●A proposed SCO Development Bank, to give the grouping its own financial architecture
●Transport and connectivity, including the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway project and cargo corridors linked to the Caspian
●Trade and energy cooperation among member states

The SCO is the only major Eurasian security grouping in which India, China, Russia and Pakistan all sit at the same table, which makes every summit a test of how India balances its interests. Two agenda items at Bishkek are worth watching. The proposed SCO Development Bank would give the grouping a financing arm of its own, a long-standing Chinese and Russian ambition that India has approached cautiously. The connectivity agenda, built around routes such as the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway, matters to India because its own preferred route into Central Asia runs through Iran's Chabahar port and the International North-South Transport Corridor rather than through Pakistan. India has also consistently pressed the SCO to keep counter-terrorism at the centre of its work, using the RATS mechanism at Tashkent.

Exam Relevance

upsc

GS Paper II > International Relations > Regional and global groupings involving India

ssc

General Awareness > Current Affairs > International organisations

banking

General Awareness > International summits and organisations

railway

General Awareness > Current Events

defence

General Awareness > Strategic and security groupings

Expected Questions

★UPSC: 'Consider the following statements about the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation' - testing membership sequence, the location of the Secretariat versus RATS, and India's year of accession.
★SSC/Railway: which city hosted the 2026 SCO summit, and which country held the 2026 chairmanship.
★Banking: the number of SCO full members and the proposed SCO Development Bank.

Key Terms

RATS

Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure, the SCO's permanent counter-terrorism body, headquartered at Tashkent.

Shanghai Five

The 1996 grouping of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan that became the SCO in 2001 when Uzbekistan joined.

Heads of State Council

The SCO's highest decision-making body, which meets in an annual summit.

priority_highMust Remember

•Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan hosts the 2026 SCO summit on 31 August - 1 September 2026.
•SCO founded 15 June 2001 at Shanghai; 25th anniversary in 2026.
•10 full members; Secretariat at Beijing, RATS at Tashkent.
•India became a full member in 2017; Iran joined in 2023 and Belarus in 2024.

tips_and_updatesExam Tips

•Do not confuse the two SCO addresses: the Secretariat is at Beijing, the RATS is at Tashkent. Examiners swap them regularly.
•Remember the accession order - India and Pakistan (2017), Iran (2023), Belarus (2024). The sequence, not just the year, is what multi-statement questions test.

Question 1 of 3Score: 0/0

Factual

Which country holds the rotating chairmanship of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation for 2026?

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Current Affairs Pulse

SCO to Hold 25th-Anniversary Summit in Bishkek on 31 August-1 September

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Exam Spotlight

Exam Relevance

Expected Questions

Key Terms

priority_highMust Remember

tips_and_updatesExam Tips

Practice Quiz

Which country holds the rotating chairmanship of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation for 2026?

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