The SCO started in 1996 and accounts for 43 percent of the world’s population and 23 percent of the global economy.
Leaders, including Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Iran President Masoud Pezeshkian, Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, China President Xi Jinping, Kyrgyzstan President Sadyr Japarov, Russia President Vladimir Putin, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Tajikistan President Emomali Rakhmon and Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, pose for a photo prior to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Bishkek [Vyacheslav Prokofyev/AFP]
