International affairs experts will be keeping a close watch on the the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit kicking off in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, on Thursday (15) as some of the frontline world leaders, including Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, Chinese president Xi Jinping, and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin will be attending the event.
Pakistani prime minister Shehbaz Sharif will also attend the summit.
The summit is taking place at a time when Russia is at serious odds with the western world over its invasion of Ukraine and India having border conflicts with China. The leaders are expected to review the grouping's performance over the past two decades and discuss possibilities of multilateral cooperation.
Heads of state of members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation at the Qingdao summit in China in June 2018. (Photo by WANG ZHAO/AFP via Getty Images)
Modi is likely to hold a number of bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the summit. It will be the first time that he will come face to face with Xi since their meeting in Brasilia, Brazil, on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in 2019. BRICS witnessed another summit in June but it was held virtually.
This will also be the first time that the two leaders will be at the same event since border clashes between their respective nation's troops turned deadly in 2020.
The event will also be key for Russia-China relations as Moscow is seeking to improve its ties with Beijing after facing crippling sanctions from the West over the Ukraine war.
The SCO, which is headquartered in Beijing, comprises besides China, India, Russia, and Pakistan, four central Asian countries of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. It is the world's largest regional organisation which covers nearly 60 per cent of the area of Eurasia and 40 per cent of the world population and nearly 30 per cent of the global gross domestic product.
This photograph taken on April 28, 2026 shows a boy getting "thali", a sacred thread tied to his neck symbolising marriage to Hindu warrior god Aravan during the annual Koovagam transgender festival at the Koothandavar temple in Tamil Nadu's Kallakurichi district. For a few fleeting days each year, at the heart of the Koothandavar Temple where ostracised transgender community members from across India come to honour the Hindu deity Aravan, a tradition rooted in millennia-old Hindu texts -- and to enjoy a brief oasis of freedom.Getty Images
This photograph taken on April 29, 2026 shows a member of the transgender community mourning as a priest cuts the "thali", a sacred thread symbolising end of her marriage to Hindu warrior god Aravan during the annual Koovagam transgender festival at the Koothandavar temple in Tamil Nadu's Kallakurichi district. For a few fleeting days each year, at the heart of the Koothandavar Temple where ostracised transgender community members from across India come to honour the Hindu deity Aravan, a tradition rooted in millennia-old Hindu texts -- and to enjoy a brief oasis of freedom. Getty Images