BISHKEK — Russia will assume the chairmanship of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization for the 2027-2028 cycle, Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov told Sputnik on Friday, as the Bishkek summit approached and Moscow positioned itself as a central voice in the bloc’s expanding vision of global order.
“Russia is next in line: 2027-2028,” Ushakov told reporters, speaking ahead of the summit that is scheduled to open August 31 in the Kyrgyz capital. Pakistan will take over the SCO rotating chairmanship for the 2026-2027 term, following the end of Kyrgyzstan’s current presidency.
President Vladimir Putin is set to attend the Bishkek summit, which runs through September 1, and to hold what Ushakov described as a full schedule of bilateral meetings on the sidelines. The most significant, in Moscow’s framing, will be his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on August 31 — the second in-person contact between the two leaders this year.
“It all starts on August 31 with a conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping,” Ushakov said. “This looks quite logical and, for us, this is a very important meeting.”
The agenda for the Putin-Xi talks will cover bilateral cooperation and significant international issues, with the Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline among the items expected to arise. Ushakov indicated that further meetings between the two leaders are already planned — at the BRICS summit in New Delhi in mid-September and at the APEC forum in China in November.
Beyond the Xi meeting, Putin is scheduled to hold bilateral talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on the summit’s sidelines. India’s participation is particularly significant: Modi’s presence in Bishkek comes as New Delhi seeks to use the SCO framework to rebalance an increasingly lopsided trade relationship with Russia, in which commodity flows have surged while Indian exporters face persistent barriers.
The SCO itself has grown substantially since its founding in 2001. Its current membership includes Belarus, China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, with a wide network of partner states ranging from Afghanistan and Turkey to Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The bloc’s geographic weight now extends across a significant portion of the world’s population and land area, making it one of the more consequential multilateral frameworks outside Western-dominated institutional architecture.
Russia assumes its next chairmanship at a moment when Moscow has explicitly leaned into SCO membership as part of its broader strategic repositioning. Western sanctions imposed since the beginning of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine have accelerated Moscow’s pivot toward non-Western trading partners and diplomatic frameworks. The SCO’s membership — which notably excludes the United States and its European allies — fits naturally into the multipolar narrative that Russian officials have consistently promoted.
Ushakov offered no information about the status of potential Russia-US-Ukraine negotiations, saying Moscow lacked direct information about whether talks could resume in September, as some reports have suggested.
What is clear is that the Bishkek summit represents a significant diplomatic exercise for Putin at a moment when Russia’s international standing in Western forums remains constrained. The SCO circuit connects Moscow to Beijing, New Delhi, Tehran and the Central Asian capitals — offering a parallel diplomatic lane that Russian officials have worked to expand. Assuming the chairmanship in 2027 extends that investment.
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