Chinese President Xi Jinping will make his opening remarks at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit held on September 1, 2025.
Evelyn Cheng
Tianjin, China – Chinese national president Xi Jinping on Monday urged members of the Shanghai Cooperation Agency to strengthen artificial intelligence cooperation, rejecting what he called the “cool war spirit.”
Xi had spoken at SCO’s biggest summit so far. More than 20 foreign leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, gathered in Tianjin.
The conference comes as China is about to acquire its position as a global peace overseer against the backdrop of sustained trade tensions with the United States, the Russian war in Ukraine and the Israeli-Hama conflict.
Xi said China has invested $84 billion in other SCO countries and pledged to have 10,000 students participate in Beijing’s “Luban” vocational education program. He added that the SCO gathering offers an opportunity to diagrammaticize new stages of high quality development and collaboration.
Prior to his remarks, XI briefly gathered with Modi and Putin during a photo session with all SCO members.
XI is scheduled to meet with President Putin this week, and Russian leaders are scheduled to stay in China for a military parade in Beijing to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.
Over the weekend, XI met with at least 10 visiting leaders, including Turkish President Recept Tayyip Erdogan and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet. According to official readings, on Saturday he met Modi.
“Stable relations and cooperation between India and China and its 2.8 billion people based on mutual respect, mutual benefit and mutual sensitivity are necessary for the growth and development of both countries,” India’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement after the meeting.
A global piece maker?
It remains unclear whether the SCO summit will pave the way for a breakthrough in alleviating tensions, but analysts said China with India will help strengthen Beijing’s influence.
“Improved relations with India is a big deal. This gives India access to the very important intellectual property needed to industrialize and promote manufacturing,” said Marko Papic, Chief Strategist at Geomacro Strategy BCA Access, in an email.
“However, for the long term, the US has lost the propaganda battle to portray China as a troublemaker.
Henry Uiyao Wang, founder and president of China and Beijing-based think tank centre for globalization, said China is adopting an “initiative” for economic cooperation and peace. He also pointed to China and India’s efforts to rebuild relations, saying he hopes India and Pakistan will do the same.
“[U.S.] President Trump is trying to make a lot of peace, but with the help of China, I think we can do the same thing too,” Wang said of CNBC’s “The China Connection.”
“China was able to use its good relations with Russia to support it. [broker] The contract for the Russian war in Ukraine could potentially act as security guarantors by SCO or members like China and India, he said:
The SCO summit could lead to China building better relations with many countries, Papic said.
The summit is scheduled to release a joint statement at the end of its two-day meeting on Monday. Top One Yi, a Chinese diplomat, is scheduled to hold a local time press conference Monday evening.
– CNBC’s Victoria Yo contributed to this report
