World leaders gathered in Bishkek for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s 25th anniversary summit, as Kyrgyzstan concluded its year as chair.
For two days, Bishkek became a centre of gravity in world affairs. Kyrgyzstan welcomed leaders from SCO's member states, including China, Russia, India, and Pakistan, alongside invited guests and the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres.
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Together they signed 28 documents, including the Bishkek Declaration, setting the bloc on a new course. The summit delivered the first changes to its founding charter in more than two decades, created a new centre in Bishkek to combat organised crime, and revived momentum behind a long-awaited SCO development bank.
The agenda stretched from artificial intelligence and clean energy to trade and connectivity, as leaders pressed their case for a fairer, more multipolar world. Kyrgyzstan's President Sadyr Japarov put it plainly: that world, he said, should be built not against anyone, but together.
It capped a landmark year for Kyrgyzstan at the helm of the SCO, with nearly 200 events, a summit that drew the world's gaze, and even a mountain peak renamed in the bloc's honour. Now the baton passes to Pakistan, host of the next Council of Heads of State summit.