The 25th Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit opened in Tianjin, China, on Sunday, with leaders including China's Xi Jinping and Russia's Vladimir Putin set to discuss security and economic cooperation at what has been billed as the group's largest-ever meeting. Chinese President Xi Jinping hosted an official dinner on Saturday evening to kick off the "SCO Plus" summit, which brings together heads of state and government from more than 20 countries. In his remarks at the start of the dinner, Xi highlighted the challenges facing the current international order and the positive role the SCO can play in addressing them. Among the attendees was Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, who is participating on behalf of President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi. Madbouly is scheduled to deliver Egypt's speech during the official session of the SCO Plus summit on Monday, Sept. 1. Other leaders attending the two-day summit include Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, and the presidents of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. In addition, the leaders of 10 international organisations have been invited, including UN Secretary-General António Guterres and representatives of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). According to experts, security and the economy will be the key topics of the summit. In exclusive commentaries to TV BRICS, a partner of Daily News Egypt, academics from the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation said the leaders' attention will be focused on developing partnerships with the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) and on measures to counter terrorism. The economic agenda is expected to be linked to the development of trade ties, transport corridors, and the alignment of national projects with China's Belt and Road Initiative, the experts said. A separate emphasis will be placed on establishing an SCO Development Bank and expanding the organisation's interbank association to accelerate the formation of a payment infrastructure and promote more active settlements in national currencies. Mikhail Khachatryan, an associate professor at the Financial University, told the international media network that the economic aspect will be the main focus. He cited a forecast that the combined GDP of the SCO member states and associate members, in terms of purchasing power parity, will amount to $82trn in 2025. "Among the key decisions of the summit, we can expect proposals for the creation of economic mechanisms that will shape the new face of a multipolar world – a world of equal opportunities and coordinated approaches by SCO member states to its formation," he said. Following the summit, the leaders are expected to adopt more than 20 documents, including the SCO Development Strategy until 2035 and the Tianjin Declaration. The SCO is an international organisation founded in 2001. Its members include Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan (since 2001), India and Pakistan (since 2017), Iran (since 2023), and Belarus (since 2024).SCO member countries account for more than 40 per cent of the world's population and over 30 per cent of global GDP.
