00:00Now 20 world leaders are meeting in the Chinese city of Tianjin for this year's summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
00:07Along with the 10 heads of international organizations, it's the largest ever gathering of the SCO.
00:14China's President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met on the sidelines and agreed the two nations should be partners and not rivals.
00:23Modi announced a resumption of direct flights between the two countries, suspended since 2020, over border tensions.
00:30Well, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, or the SCO, has 10 members, China, India, Pakistan, Russia, Iran, Belarus, plus Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
00:45Globally, it is the largest regional organization by geographic size and people, bringing together more than 40% of the world's population.
00:53In 2023, SCO countries had a combined GDP of $24.4 trillion, which is nearly a quarter of the global economy.
01:03Established in 2001 by China, Russia and former Soviet states, the SCO aims to promote regional security, combat separatism and boost trade and investment by encouraging economic cooperation.
01:16C.G.T.N.'s Dai Kaiyi has Mona from Tianjin.
01:19Leaders from around the world have gathered in Tianjin for a grand meeting of the SCO Summit 2025, an event marks multilateralism and solidarity.
01:30On Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in the city.
01:34This marks another visit by President Putin to China since his state visit last May.
01:39Russia is, of course, one of the six founding members of the SCO, and China and Russia have maintained close ties under the SCO framework.
01:48We've learned that this time he's accompanied by a large and significant delegation, including three deputy prime ministers, over a dozen ministers, as well as representatives of major enterprises in Russia.
02:00Chinese President Xi Jinping today also met separately with U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres and leaders of multiple countries, including Kazakhstan, Belarus and India.
02:12In his meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he mentioned a successful meeting last year at Kazan Brick Summit that enabled the China-India relationship to have a reset and start anew.
02:25He said both are major ancient civilizations in the East, and China and India, of course, are the most populous countries in the world, and they are important members of the global South.
02:37And this year marks the 75th anniversary of the diplomatic ties between China and India.
02:44Both countries should see their ties from a strategic and long-term perspective.
02:48He said the focus should be on development.
02:52This is what he calls the biggest common denominator of the two countries.
02:57Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the relationship between China and India is backed on a positive trajectory.
03:03India and China are partners, not rivals.
03:05Their consensus far outweighs the disagreement.
03:09And this year marks the largest ever SCO summit and one of China's most significant diplomatic events.
03:15And the Chinese president will chair the meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the SCO and the SCO Plus meeting, in which he's expected to deliver keynote speeches.
03:26And during the summit, leaders will sign and issue the Tianjin Declaration, approve the SCO's development strategy for the next decade, and adopt a series of outcome documents charting the future of the SCO.
03:38A statement will also be issued to mark the 80th anniversary of the victory in the world's anti-fascist war, as well as the founding of the United Nations.
03:47And let's talk now to Winnie King, who's a senior lecturer in politics and international studies at the University of Bristol here in the UK.
03:58Thank you very much indeed for being with us today.
04:00So first of all, if I could, I'd like to get your reaction to the warm words we heard from China and India,
04:05saying that they want to be partners and not rivals.
04:08I mean, how could that help to anchor, do you think, the SCO in its priorities and its hopeful outcomes this year?
04:17Well, it's quite a significant development in terms of the fact that it's not just the first time that Modi has visited,
04:23I'm sorry, attended the summit since 2018.
04:26But it's a significant shift in terms of how we've seen China-India and India-US relations evolving since the Biden administration.
04:37So it's definitely a movement towards and a reflection of growing changes within the international political system,
04:44growing concerns about economic insecurity and fragmentation,
04:48and how there's scope for cooperation, not just between China and India, but within the SCO member states itself.
04:58OK. And overall, what do you think we can expect to see come out of this summit?
05:02What kind of outcomes do you expect there are going to be?
05:05What were the stated priorities? Do we know much about what is likely to be agreed?
05:08Well, we do know that there's three key priorities that they wanted to discuss during the summit over this weekend,
05:14and that's in the area of security, economic connectivity, and digital transformation.
05:19And these are not new in terms of the fact that these are areas that have been longstanding within the SCO itself.
05:27But what is a bit different is the fact that the Tianjin Declaration sets out a more clear kind of strategy for the next decade,
05:36which includes a larger economic side and development side for the SCO itself,
05:42which is traditionally a security organization.
05:44So would you say then the tone has really shifted to more of an economic focus?
05:51I wouldn't necessarily say that it's shifted to economics.
05:54I think the key thing we need to understand is that the international order has moved towards one of less of cooperation and collaboration
06:03and one more of competition, security, risk, and that's highlighted in the tariff war and the trade wars that have been going on since, well, before April.
06:17But I think the really thing that we need to understand is that economics has become more of a security issue than it has in the recent past.
06:26And it's really come to the fore with the return of Trump.
06:32So the SCO's focus on economics, while not new, the prioritization is reasonably significant as a shift.
06:41But it links to the idea that it has more of a security line to it.
06:46And focusing specifically on China and China's role, China's contribution to the SCO, particularly in Central Asia,
06:54how important is that? And is Beijing really seen as the big player or is it kind of more of a first among equals?
07:02It's a big question. I think there's ultimately two ways to think about it.
07:07China is a big player, but it's also an equal player.
07:10And what I mean by that is the fact that it cannot be forgotten that China is as large as it is with regards to its economy.
07:17So its economic theft, its diplomatic priorities and its diplomatic kind of campaigns make it quite a significant player within the region as well as within the organization itself.
07:30Now, when it comes to SCO itself, it does make an effort to kind of present things where everyone is an equal player.
07:38But it's important to understand that when it came to the guiding principles and the establishment of the SCO,
07:44China was one of the co-founding nations and its guiding principles, the guiding principles of SCO,
07:50sorry, SCO, follow along with China's own fundamental foreign policy principles of respect for sovereignty and non-intervention.
07:57And so it does have a very significant contribution to make to the SCO, but it is not necessarily the dominant player in all aspects of the SCO itself.
08:09And the fact that we have India and Russia within as members really reflects that.
08:14Really grateful for your thoughts today. Winnie came from the University of Bristol. Thank you so much.
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