Bishkek Summit highlights SCO’s expanding scope and Uzbekistan’s strategic role

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit held in Bishkek on August 31 – September 1 this year, in particular the adoption of the Bishkek Declaration, amendments to the SCO Charter, the establishment of new permanent security bodies, and the initiatives put forward by the Heads of State, demonstrated that the Organization is entering a new stage of its development.

The political significance of the Bishkek Declaration should be assessed not by the number of issues it addresses, but by how those issues interconnect. On the one hand, the document reaffirms the principles of a multipolar world order, the UN’s central coordinating role, state sovereignty, territorial integrity, and non-interference in internal affairs. On the other hand, it complements these principles with practical cooperation in trade, investment, transport, energy, digital technologies, and climate-related issues.

The Declaration explicitly states that the SCO is not a military-political bloc and is not directed against other states or international organizations. This is an important point. Interpreting the Organization’s expansion or its growing international influence as a structure “directed against someone” would be inconsistent with both the document’s substance and Uzbekistan’s foreign policy position. The SCO model is based on maintaining consensus and practical cooperation amid differing interests.

Traditional areas of security cooperation remain in place. Combating terrorism, separatism, and extremism, as well as the cross-border movement of terrorists, drug trafficking, transnational organized crime, and cybercrime, remains among the SCO’s key priorities. At the Bishkek Summit, cooperation mechanisms in these areas were updated.

On Afghanistan, the Declaration combines principle with pragmatism. The document supports establishing Afghanistan as an independent, neutral, and peaceful state free from terrorism, war, and drugs, and notes the need for broad socio-political representation to achieve lasting peace in the country. President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, for his part, emphasized that it is time to resume regular dialogue between the SCO and Afghanistan on a broad range of security and economic cooperation issues.

The Declaration also advances a position on the situation in the Middle East and around Iran, grounded in respect for states’ sovereignty and territorial integrity, the settlement of conflicts through political and diplomatic means, and the easing of tensions.