Putin and Xi open the Bishkek summit with Power of Siberia 2 on the table
About 12 heads of state are due in Bishkek on Monday for a two-day Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit marking 25 years of the bloc. Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping are set to meet bilaterally on 31 August, and the Kremlin said the long-stalled Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline will be on the agenda. Iran's Masoud Pezeshkian and India's Narendra Modi are also expected at the plenary.
Geopolitics··Evening
A dozen leaders head to Kyrgyzstan for the SCO anniversary
About 12 heads of state are due in the Kyrgyz capital on Monday for a two-day summit marking 25 years of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, a bloc that now runs from Russia and China to India, Pakistan, Iran, four Central Asian states and Belarus. The plenary chaired by Kyrgyz leader Sadyr Japarov also seats Putin, Xi, Narendra Modi and Shehbaz Sharif. Iran is represented by President Masoud Pezeshkian. Beyond its 10 members the organisation now counts 15 dialogue partners, including Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and two observers, Afghanistan and Mongolia.[1]
Putin and Xi plan a bilateral on the summit margins
Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov said Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping will meet bilaterally on 31 August on the margins of the summit in Bishkek. Kremlin spokesman Yuri Ushakov said Putin would also hold separate bilateral talks, among them with Pezeshkian and Xi. It is the two leaders' second face-to-face meeting this year. The summit falls four and a half years into Moscow's invasion of Ukraine and six months into the war between Washington and Tehran. Trump has warned Moscow and Beijing against arming Iran. Putin's meeting with Pezeshkian comes days after CIA Director John Ratcliffe made a rare trip to Moscow.[1], [2]
Power of Siberia 2 returns to the negotiating table
Ushakov said the long-stalled Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline will be discussed at the Putin-Xi meeting. The project is designed to raise Russian gas deliveries to China and has been under negotiation for years without a concluded agreement. Ushakov indicated the subject could also come up at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok from 1 to 4 September. The account of the agenda comes from the Kremlin; Beijing has not published a matching description, and a meeting on the schedule is not a signed contract. Russia and Iran, among the most heavily sanctioned states in the world, deepened their military and economic ties sharply during the Ukraine war.[2], [1]
