Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, from August 31 to September 1 to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, Türkiye’s Head of Communications has said.
Burhanettin Duran said on the Turkish social media platform NSosyal on Sunday that Erdogan will visit at the invitation of Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov.
As part of the visit, Erdogan will address the summit session to be held in an expanded format and hold bilateral meetings with participating leaders on Tuesday, Duran added.
In addition to Erdogan, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Pakistani Premier Shehbaz Sharif and heads of state of other member countries are also expected to be in the Kyrgyz capital on Monday to attend the two-day SCO summit.
Putin is also expected to hold separate bilateral talks with Pezeshkian and Xi, among other leaders, according to Kremlin spokesperson Yuri Ushakov.
The summit marks 25 years of the regional bloc working to balance Western global influence.
The organisation now has 10 members: Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Belarus.
On top of its members, it now has 15 "dialogue partners", including Türkiye, Azerbaijan, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. It also has two observer countries: Afghanistan and Mongolia.
The SCO's founding declaration says the group is "not an alliance directed against other states".
The SCO traces its roots to the Shanghai Five, established in 1996 by China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to reduce military tensions and address border disputes after the breakup of the Soviet Union.
Uzbekistan joined when the SCO was formally established in 2001. India and Pakistan became full members in 2017, followed by Iran in 2023 and Belarus in 2024.
The SCO represents around 3.4 billion people and roughly 25 percent of global GDP. Unlike NATO or the EU, it is neither a military alliance nor an economic union but a forum for security cooperation, economic ties and diplomacy.
