BEIJING, Sept. 1, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife, Peng Liyuan, on Sunday hosted a banquet in China’s port city of Tianjin to welcome international guests who attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit 2025, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

At the banquet, Xi said the SCO is shouldering greater responsibilities for safeguarding regional peace and stability, and for boosting development of various countries in a world of increasing uncertainties and accelerated changes.

Xi expressed confidence that with concerted efforts of all parties, the summit will be a complete success, and that the SCO is certain to play an even bigger role and achieve more progress, making greater contribution to boosting the unity and cooperation among member states, pooling the strength of the Global South and pushing for more progress of human civilization.

The SCO Summit 2025, the largest since its establishment in 2001, is being held on Sunday and Monday in the northern port city of Tianjin. Banners bearing the SCO logo line the streets, airports and railway stations, signaling a warm welcome for the high-profile gathering that has attracted high attention.

The event underscores China’s commitment to enhancing regional cooperation and fostering dialogue across diverse civilizations. With leaders from more than 20 countries and 10 international organizations participating, the summit is expected to pool consensus and steer the organization toward building a closer community with a shared future, Xinhua reported.

The two-day event will usher in a new stage of high-quality development for the SCO featuring stronger solidarity, coordination, dynamism and productiveness.

The expected outcomes of the meeting include a declaration, a 10-year development strategy for the SCO and documents on strengthening cooperation in the fields of security, economy as well as cultural and people-to-people exchanges, the report said.

Over the past 24 years, the SCO has grown from its initial six founding member states into a 26-nation family comprising 10 member states, two observer states and 14 dialogue partners, covering approximately half of the world’s population and about a quarter of global GDP, Xinhua reported.

Wider expectations

The 2025 SCO Summit has garnered widespread attention, with international media covering this important event and many journalists expressing optimism about the organization’s prospects, despite global challenges.

The leaders of three of the world’s largest countries will gather for a Eurasian summit in China this weekend, CNN reported

China’s port city of Tianjin is set to become the stage for high-stakes diplomacy as world leaders gather for the SCO Summit, the Times of India reported on Saturday.

The SCO has grown into a major regional bloc, the report noted, highlighting that the grouping also promotes a “just” international order, shorthand for a multipolar system not dominated by one superpower and its allies.

This is the first time Megha Sharma, a reporter with NewsX, an Indian media outlet, has participated in an SCO summit, and her first visit to Tianjin. She arrived earlier on Friday to get a firsthand look at the event, which she has high expectations for.

Sharma said that it becomes extremely important for countries of the Global South to come together, reflect on their shared and individual interests and collaborate to strengthen diplomatic relations, enhance trade ties, and build stronger bilateral partnerships.

Speaking to the Global Times via an exclusive written interview ahead of the summit, Leela Mani Paudyal, a former Nepalese ambassador to China, attaches great importance to the event.

“The SCO summit this year is the largest ever gathering in the organization’s history, and significance of the summit is not just only on the number of heads of states and the governments to attend, but also equally important due to the timing of the meeting,” Paudyal said.

“The strength of unipolar global order is waning whereas the multi-polar global order had not taken shape,” said the former envoy. He noted that in this situation, the SCO in which almost all major Eurasian powers are members, can play a significant role in giving strategic direction to a multi-polar global order and gain the trust of the Global South so it can play a significant role to make the world more inclusive, just and peaceful.

Significant difference

Since its establishment, the SCO has consistently promoted the “Shanghai Spirit,” based on mutual trust and benefit, respect for the diversity of civilizations, and the pursuit of joint development. The Organization rejects the outdated concepts of the “Cold War,” overcoming zero-sum thinking and the confrontation of civilizations, wrote Shavkat Mirziyoyev, President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, in an opinion article published in the Global Times on Friday.

The SCO actively promotes and implements the ideas of non-alignment, non-confrontation and non-targeting of third parties. This association advocates complete equality of large and small states, achieving consensus through constructive consultations, as well as promoting peace through dialogue and cooperation. This is precisely the source of the Organization’s appeal and energy, the article read.

Despite the significant differences in values among countries, the advantage of the SCO Summit lies in the widespread adherence to the principle of pursuing benefits and avoiding harm, as well as the universal pursuit of common interests, observer said.

The latest SCO Summit once again highlights the significance of the Shanghai Spirit, offering a new model and paradigm for today’s globalization, Yang Jin, deputy secretary-general of the SCO Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Sunday.

“The SCO addresses development challenges through cooperation and coordination, promoting mutual assistance and complementarity to achieve common progress… This approach is based on partnership rather than confrontation,” Yang said, highlighting the value of the SCO’s experience and the paradigm it contributes to global governance.

There is a potential for the SCO to deepen collaboration in economic and industrial sectors, the Chinese expert said. “Since most SCO members are developing countries and still face challenges in economic development, solidarity and mutual complementarity can help advance cooperation in emerging areas such as the digital economy, green growth and sustainable development,” the expert said.

It is expected that the Tianjin Summit will enable the SCO to build greater consensus on comprehensive cooperation and adopt new, solid measures to support its high-quality development, contribute more “SCO strength” to building a community with a shared future for humanity, and inject greater stability and positive energy into the world, said a Xinhua report.