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Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the 26th Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization at Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic, held between 31 August and 1 September 2026 — the year the grouping completed 25 years.
The summit adopted the Bishkek Declaration along with four MoUs and over twenty decisions and statements, covering climate, nuclear safety, energy conservation and combating drug addiction.
Four India-led proposals found place in the Declaration: English as an official language in the SCO Charter, the Civilisation Dialogue Forum, a Young Scientists' Forum and a Young Authors' Conclave.
India restated its three-pillar framing of the grouping — Security, Connectivity and Opportunity — pressed for no double standards on terrorism, and said connectivity efforts must respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of nations.
India will host the first edition of the SCO Civilisation Dialogue Forum later in 2026.
Eurasian political, economic and security grouping created in 2001 out of the Shanghai Five; works on counter-terrorism, regional security, connectivity, trade and cultural exchange
The SCO's supreme decision-making organ; meets once a year and adopts the summit declaration and the grouping's major decisions
The SCO's permanent counter-terrorism body, set up to coordinate action against the 'three evils' of terrorism, separatism and extremism
The organisation's standing administrative body, servicing the Councils and coordinating implementation of decisions
The constituting treaty of the organisation — signed at St. Petersburg on 7 June 2002 and in force from 19 September 2003. It fixes the objectives, the organs, and the principle of respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity that India invoked at Bishkek on connectivity. Its official working languages are Russian and Chinese; the 2026 summit approved a Protocol on Amendments and Additions to the Charter.
Signed on the day the SCO was founded, it defines the 'three evils' the grouping is built around and provides the legal basis for the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure at Tashkent.
The Shanghai Five is formed by China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to settle border questions and build confidence.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is founded at Shanghai as Uzbekistan joins, taking the membership to six. The Shanghai Convention on the 'three evils' is signed the same day.
The SCO Charter is signed at St. Petersburg; it enters into force on 19 September 2003.
India and Pakistan are admitted as full members at the Astana Summit.
India holds the chairmanship for the first time and hosts the 23rd summit from New Delhi in virtual format; Iran becomes a full member.
Belarus becomes the tenth full member.
The 25th summit is held at Tianjin, China.
The 26th summit is held at Bishkek under the Kyrgyz chairmanship on the grouping's 25th anniversary; the Bishkek Declaration is adopted.
| Category | What it carries | Who is in it |
|---|---|---|
| Member State | Full participation and voting in the Council of Heads of State; signs the summit declaration | China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India, Pakistan, Iran, Belarus (10) |
| Observer State | Attends summits and selected meetings; no vote on decisions | Afghanistan and Mongolia (2) |
| Dialogue Partner | Sectoral cooperation with the organisation; no vote | Azerbaijan, Armenia, Bahrain, Cambodia, Egypt, Kuwait, Laos, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Turkiye and the United Arab Emirates (15) |
Bishkek is the capital and largest city of the Kyrgyz Republic, a landlocked Central Asian state that borders Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the south-west and China to the east. Its territory is dominated by the Tien Shan ranges. Kyrgyzstan is one of the four Central Asian republics in the SCO along with Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan; Turkmenistan, the fifth Central Asian republic, is not an SCO member. Kyrgyzstan's Independence Day falls on 31 August and Uzbekistan's on 1 September — the two days of the summit.
The border-confidence grouping of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan that became the SCO in 2001 when Uzbekistan joined — the standard 'predecessor body' question.
The SCO is India's principal multilateral link to the four Central Asian SCO members; it sits alongside the India-Central Asia Dialogue and India's interest in the Chabahar port and the International North-South Transport Corridor as alternative connectivity routes.
An SCO observer state, and the reference point for the grouping's security discussions; India's assistance to Afghanistan is a recurring element of its SCO interventions.
Overlaps heavily with the SCO in membership — India, China, Russia, Iran and the UAE appear in both — which makes the two groupings a standard comparison question on membership and mandate.
RATS at Tashkent is the SCO's operational counter-terror body; compare it with the UN Security Council's Counter-Terrorism Committee and India's push for the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism.
GS Paper 2 > International Relations > Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India
General Awareness > Current Affairs > International Organisations and Summits
General Awareness > International Summits and Headquarters
Current Affairs > Regional Security Groupings
The SCO appears almost every year in Prelims general awareness and in Mains IR questions on regional groupings; summit venue and membership are the most repeated facts.
The SCO's supreme organ, meeting annually at summit level; it adopts the declaration and the grouping's principal decisions.
The SCO's permanent counter-terrorism body at Tashkent, created to coordinate member states against terrorism, separatism and extremism.
Terrorism, separatism and extremism — the trio defined in the Shanghai Convention of 2001 and the basis of the SCO's security work.
The SCO's outermost tier of association — sectoral cooperation without a vote in the Council of Heads of State.