Facing increasing confrontations with the West, Russian President Vladimir Putin looks eastward to bolster his country's standing in the region -- including with Iran -- at a major summit in Bishkek, the Kyrgyz capital.Putin is set to hold bilateral meetings with Iranian President Masud Pezeshkian and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, among at least seven others, starting August 31 on the sidelines of the two-day Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which is celebrating its 25th anniversary.Putin is also expected to hold bilateral sessions with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of non-SCO nation Turkey.
Kremlin officials said Putin has at least nine bilateral meetings scheduled as Moscow looks to place Russia as a counterweight to Western influence in the region.Putin and Xi have often used SCO gatherings to put up a united front against Western influence in the region. Xi arrived late on August 30 and held his first meeting with Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov, who will serve as host of the summit.Along with Russia, Iran, India, and China, the SCO grouping consists of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. Not all members are allies, of course, with nuclear powers Pakistan and India often on the brink of war with each other.Originally The 'Shanghai Five'The organization began as the "Shanghai Five" in 1996 but began expanding to other regional nations starting in 2001.Moscow and Tehran are both under crippling Western sanctions -- Russia for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and Iran for a multitude of issues, including its support for extremist activity in the Middle East and its alleged pursuit of a nuclear weapon.Kyiv and the West have demanded that Iran cease from providing deadly Shahed drones to Russia for use in the Ukraine war, while US officials told RFE/RL that Russia is providing Iran with targeting information to attack US troops and military assets in the Middle East, confirming a Washington Post report.Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov said "one of the key subjects" in the talks between Putin and Pezeshkian will be the Middle East crisis. "You know how relevant this meeting is in light of the current uneasy atmosphere in the Middle East and the situation surrounding Iran," he added.Also on the agenda will be the $25 billion agreement signed by Tehran with Russia's state nuclear company Rosatom to build four nuclear power plants in Iran.
