IRIA News

Leaders from eight permanent member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) gathered in Samarkand, the historic Silk Road trading hub, in Uzbekistan, for the 22nd SCO leader’s summit.

At the two-day summit (September 15 to 16, 2022), the member countries discussed issues concerning each other and signed the Samarkand declaration at the end of the summit, vowing to maintain peace and security, and deepen the relations through political and diplomatic means to tackle international and regional conflicts.

Several statements were adopted at the 22nd SCO Heads of State Council meeting to address climate change, ensuring reliable, sustainable, and diversified supply chains, and securing global food security and international energy security.

The meeting between the SCO leaders was held on September 16, 2022. The summit at the newly constructed Silk Road Samarkand Tourist Center in Uzbekistan brought Putin and Xi together at the table with the other SCO member states including Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, India, and the host Uzbekistan. Leaders from the non-permanent member countries including Turkey, Mongolia, Iran, Azerbaijan, and Belarus also attended the event.

Some key decisions were also taken at the summit. Iran signed a Memorandum of Obligations to become a permanent member of the SCO while a procedure was initiated to include Belarus as a member and to grant the status of SCO dialogue partner to Maldives, Bahrain, Myanmar, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Mutual cooperation to restore the international order was a common theme in the statements from all the leaders. During his speech at the main event, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that “the growing role of new centers of power who cooperate with each other, is becoming more and more clear.” He further added that “Our policy is devoid of any selfishness. We hope others will carry out their policies according to the same principles and will stop using the instruments of protectionism, illegal sanctions and economic selfishness.”

China’s President Xi Jinping told the summit that all SCO members should “abandon zero-sum games and bloc politics” and “uphold the international system with the United Nations at its core.” He further added that all the leaders should “work together to promote the development of the international order in a more just and rational direction.”

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called on the leaders to enhance the regional security bloc. Modi said that “The pandemic and the crisis in Ukraine have caused many disruptions in global supply chains, leaving the world facing unprecedented energy and food crises. SCO should strive to develop reliable, resilient, and diversified supply chains in our region.”

The last in-person SCO summit was held in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, in 2019. Since then the summit has been conducted online due to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. The 2022 SCO summit has provided a unique opportunity for the regional leader to come together at a table after a long break. It also arranged several bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the summit. Some of the most prominent bilateral meetings are listed below:

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin

One of the most anticipated bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the 2022 SCO summit was the meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin. China’s President is on his first foreign tour since the pandemic started in 2020.

This was also the first meeting between the two leaders since the Russian invasion of Ukraine started in February this year. President Xi did not mention the Ukraine war in his initial remarks during his meeting with President Putin. He said that he was happy to meet his “old friend” again. Putin also addressed Xi as “Dear Comrade Xi Jinping, dear friend” and stated, “We highly value the balanced position of our Chinese friends when it comes to the Ukraine crisis.”

The Chinese president said that his country was ready to work with Russia in extending strong support to each other on issues concerning their respective core interests. China is also willing to deepen pragmatic cooperation in such areas as trade, agriculture, and connectivity as well as to safeguard the security and interests of the region, Xi said

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov later told reporters that the closed-door talks were excellent. “Our assessments of the international situation coincide completely. There are no discrepancies at all,” he said. “We will continue to coordinate our actions including at the forthcoming U.N. General Assembly.”

Russia-China oil and gas pipelines planned through Mongolia

Samarkand also hosted a trilateral meeting of Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and President of Mongolia Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh.

The three leaders discussed the construction of oil and gas pipelines from Russia to China. “We believe that expanding cooperation with China and Mongolia in the energy sector holds promise. The construction of the Soyuz Vostok gas pipeline from Russia to China across Mongolia is part of the current agenda,” Putin said according to a Kremlin statement. The Mongolian president said that he supports the construction of oil and gas pipelines from Russia to China via Mongolia.

Putin also noted that mutual trade among the three countries is growing every year, saying that Russia’s aggregate trade with China and Mongolia increased by almost 60 percent to over $142 billion in 2021 in the last seven years.

Xi has put forward forth a four-point proposal on advancing China-Russia-Mongolia cooperation by deepening collaboration, upgrading cooperation within the SCO framework, working on the China-Mongolia-Russia Economic Corridor, and supporting the expansion of settlement in local currencies in mutual trade. Mongolia said that it is ready to strengthen ties with China and Russia and jointly work for progress in both bilateral and trilateral cooperation in trade, investment, environment, energy, railway and tourism.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev

President Erdogan held a closed-door meeting with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev. The two leaders discussed the deadly border clashes between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Erdogan criticized Armenia for provoking and inciting attacks on Azerbaijan.

Armenia is also a dialogue partner in the SCO and was supposed to attend the event, however, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan withdrew his attendance at the last minute due to the escalating security situation at the border with Azerbaijan.

After attending the summit, President Erdogan tweeted that “We were pleased to meet with our friends at the 22nd Summit of the Council of Heads of State and Government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization held in Uzbekistan. We sincerely believe that we will increase our cooperation with the Organization much higher with our joint efforts.”

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan

President Xi met with his Turkish counterpart on the sidelines of the SCO summit. According to Chinese state media, President Xi stressed that “the two sides should consolidate political mutual trust, respect each other’s core interests and consolidate the political foundation of China-Turkey strategic cooperative relations.” 

Erdogan also noted the importance of a healthy China-Turkey relationship in various areas and expressed the readiness to work with China to enhance the bilateral mechanisms such as inter-governmental cooperation to promote fruitful trade and investment cooperation between the two countries. He also reiterated Turkey’s firm commitment to the one-China principle.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was present during the SCO summit 2022 as an observer member. He met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the event where the two leaders discussed possibilities to boost bilateral trade by establishing new ventures. Putin said that a delegation of 80 large Russian companies would visit Iran next week in order to explore possibilities of economic cooperation.

The Russian president noted that Moscow and Tehran share a similar stance on many international issues. He said that “Inter-regional ties are developing. We actively cooperate on the international arena and on many [issues] our positions are close, or, as diplomats say, coincide.” Iran and Russia have come even closer after West imposed similar economic sanctions on both countries recently.

Modi came face-to-face with Xi for the first time since deadly border clashes between India and China

The SCO summit 2022 was the first time that the leaders of India and China came face-to-face with each other after the deadly border clashes of 2020. The event comes at a time when Indian and Chinese soldiers engaged in another clash along the disputed area of the western Himalayan border after more than two years of a standoff.

Modi and Xi have not spoken to each other since the standoff began in 2020. Both sides rejected the possibility of a bilateral meeting between the two leaders ahead of their arrival in Samarkand.

Iran signed MoU to join the SCO

Iran signed a Memorandum of Obligations (MoU) to become a permanent member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). According to the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Hossein Amirabdollahian “By signing the document for full membership of the SCO, now Iran has entered a new stage of various economic, commercial, transit and energy cooperation.”

Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran, and Mongolia are observer countries for the SCO, while Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Turkey are the dialogue partners with the organization.