Institutional Profile
|
Objective of the Organization:
To strengthen mutual trust, good neighbourliness, and friendly relations among the Member States; to undertake joint efforts to preserve regional peace, security and stability; to combat terrorism, extremism, separatism, organized crime and irregular migration; and to enhance cooperation in the fields of politics, economy, science and technology, culture and education, energy and the environment.
|
|
|
Year of Establishment:
2001
|
Headquarters:
Beijing
|
Secretary General:
Ambassador Nurlan Yermekbayev (former Minister of Defence of Kazakhstan; assumed office on 1 January 2025)
|
Member States (10):
People’s Republic of China, Russian Federation, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, India, Pakistan, Iran, Belarus.
Observer States (2):
Afghanistan, Mongolia.
Dialogue Partners (15):
Türkiye, Azerbaijan, Sri Lanka, Armenia, Cambodia, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Maldives, Myanmar, Laos.
Organizational Structure
The Council of Heads of State (CHS) serves as the highest decision-making body of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and convenes annually at SCO Summits to address all major matters concerning the organization. The Council of Heads of Government (Prime Ministers) (CHG) also meets once a year to review the strategy for multilateral cooperation and priority areas, consider key and current issues in the economic and other sectors, and adopt the SCO budget.
Beyond the CHS and CHG sessions, the SCO operates through a wide range of sectoral meeting mechanisms covering foreign affairs, defense, security, economy and trade, culture, health, education, transport, emergency management, science and technology, agriculture, judicial cooperation, tourism, industry, energy, poverty reduction, and sports. The Council of National Coordinators functions as the organization’s primary coordinating body.
The organization maintains two permanent bodies: the Secretariat, located in Beijing, and the Executive Committee of the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS), based in Tashkent.
History
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) traces its origins to 1996, when China, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan established the “Shanghai Five” with the aim of enhancing mutual trust, demilitarizing border regions and promoting regional cooperation.
In 1996 and 1997, the Heads of State of the five founding countries met in Shanghai and Moscow, respectively, and signed the “Agreement on Confidence Building in the Military Field” and the “Agreement on the Mutual Reduction of Armed Forces in the Border Area”. Between 1998 and 2000, summit meetings in Almaty, Bishkek and Dushanbe broadened the agenda to include political, economic and security related issues alongside border confidence building measures.
In light of the evolving international environment, the Shanghai Five transformed into a regional organization at the Heads of State Summit held in Shanghai on 14-15 June 2001 in order to enhance cooperation in combating terrorism, separatism, and extremism. At this summit a Joint Declaration on Uzbekistan’s accession was also adopted, and the organization was formally established through the “Declaration on the Establishment of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization”, signed by all six states. At the same meeting, the Convention of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization against Terrorism, Separatism and Extremism was also signed.
At the first meeting of the SCO Heads of Government Council (HGC), held in Almaty on 14 September 2001, the “Memorandum on Basic Goals and Directions of Regional Economic Cooperation and Launching the Trade and Investment Facilitation Process” was signed and the regular meeting mechanism for the HGC was established.
The SCO Charter, signed at the Heads of State Summit in St. Petersburg on 7 June 2002, defines the organization’s purposes, principles, structure, activities, areas of cooperation and external relations.
At the SCO Summit held in Astana on 8-9 June 2017 under Kazakhstan’s chairmanship, Pakistan and India—whose accession processes had begun at the 2015 Ufa Summit—were admitted as full members. At the Summit in Dushanbe on 17 September 2021 under Tajikistan’s chairmanship, Iran became the ninth member, while Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Qatar were granted dialogue partner status.
At the Astana Summit on 3-4 July 2024, Belarus’s full membership was approved, bringing the number of member states to ten. The same Summit endorsed the appointment of Nurlan Yermekbayev as Secretary General for a three-year term beginning on 1 January 2025.
The SCO Summit hosted by China under its chairmanship took place in Tianjin on 31 August-1 September 2025. The Council of Heads of State adopted the Tianjin Declaration, the SCO Development Strategy to 2035, and other key documents related to the organization’s institutional development. At the Tianjin Summit, the member states have decided to combine the statuses of “observer” and “dialogue partner” into a single status of “SCO partner”.
Following China’s chairmanship, the 2025-2026 SCO chairmanship was transferred to the Kyrgyz Republic.
Türkiye–SCO Relations
Türkiye was admitted as a “dialogue partner” at the SCO Heads of State Summit held in Beijing on 6-7 June 2012.
Within the framework of Dialogue Partnership, Türkiye closely follows priority issues on the SCO agenda, including the fight against terrorism and transnational crime, energy cooperation and regional connectivity.
Türkiye was the rotating chairman of the SCO Energy Club in 2017, becoming the first non-member state to undertake this role.
Upon the invitation of Uzbekistan, H.E. Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, President of the Republic of Türkiye, attended the Samarkand Summit on 15-16 September 2022 as a special guest, marking the first time Türkiye was represented at the highest level at an SCO meeting.
SCO Secretary General Nurlan Yermekbayev participated in the Antalya Diplomacy Forum (ADF) held on 11-13 April 2025 and gave a speech at the panel titled “The Role of Culture in Today’s World: Unifying or Dividing?”
President Erdoğan attended the SCO Summit held in Tianjin on 31 August-1 September 2025, hosted by China, as a guest of honour and delivered an address at the SCO+ extended session.