The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a diverse group aiming to balance the West’s global influence, has called for a more representative and fairer multipolar world order as its summit in Kyrgyzstan ended on Tuesday with a run of headlines.
The 25th gathering of the 10 members — China, India, Iran, Pakistan, Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan — brought together regional leaders as “dialogue partners” from Central Asia, the Caspian region, the Middle East and wider Asia in a broad forum of meetings to address a rapidly changing multipolar world, even amid significant disagreements and often diverging interests.
The Iran war and Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine defined the summit’s focus, with disruptions in global supply lines and emerging alternatives through Central Asia and the Caspian, as well as the rapid geopolitical shockwaves and realignments they have generated.
In a surprise moment with global impact, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Russian President Vladimir Putin directly, on live television, to end his war against Ukraine.
"Every single day spent in war pushes humanity backwards, ” Modi said unexpectedly to a visibly tense Putin. “We need to move from endless war to the end of war, to the end of hostilities.”
