Islamabad says it will assume the rotating chairmanship of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s top body after the Bishkek summit, a regional spotlight it will share with arch-rival India.
Pakistan announced on Monday that it will assume the chairmanship of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s (SCO) Council of Heads of State (CHS) in September and host the bloc’s next leaders’ summit in 2027, according to a Foreign Office statement reported by Dawn, The Express Tribune and Pakistan Today.
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar called the upcoming role “a reflection of trust and confidence in Pakistan’s leadership role regionally and globally,” as reported by Dawn and The Express Tribune. He said Islamabad would pursue a “forward-looking and action-oriented agenda” focused on strengthening economic collaboration, regional connectivity and security, per Dawn.
The handover follows the SCO’s rotation cadence: Kyrgyzstan assumed the rotating chairmanship at the Tianjin summit in September 2025, as reported by The Astana Times, and is due to host this year’s CHS summit in Bishkek in the second half of 2026, according to Caspian Post. Pakistan takes the gavel afterward.
The chairmanship is significant for Islamabad because the SCO is one of the few high-level multilateral forums where Pakistan and India sit at the same table. The 10-member bloc, which also groups China, Russia, Iran and the Central Asian states, operates by consensus, as noted by Deccan Herald — meaning a single objection can block any joint document.
That dynamic has repeatedly exposed the rivalry. At the SCO defence ministers’ meeting in Qingdao in June 2025, Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh refused to sign the joint declaration because it omitted any reference to the April 2025 Pahalgam attack while including the Jaffar Express hijacking in Balochistan, according to The Tribune (India) and Deccan Herald. No joint statement was issued as a result.
India’s frustration with the forum has hardened into open criticism, with commentary in ThePrint arguing the China-led bloc “shields Pakistan” and “sidelines India” on terrorism. Pakistan, for its part, used recent SCO statements to press its own grievances, including over the Indus Waters Treaty, which India has held in abeyance since the Pahalgam attack, as reported by Dawn.
Pakistan’s incoming chairmanship will hand Islamabad a year-long platform to set the bloc’s agenda and convene its leaders — including, potentially, a sitting Indian prime minister — even as bilateral ties remain frozen over Kashmir, water and cross-border terrorism. The next test will be whether the Bishkek summit later this year produces a consensus declaration before Pakistan inherits the chair.
