BEIJING – Iranian President Masudo Pezeshkian attends China’s 2025 Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, and the tripartite message of Iran’s top leader on bilateral relations reflects increased strategic integrity between the two countries.
The summit, held in Tianjin city in the northern part of the city, has been a key moment for Iran, who has officially become a member of the SCO in July 2023 and has since injected new energy into the development of the SCO, and has been actively involved in various areas of the SCO.
Founded 24 years ago in response to the complex international and regional landscapes after the Cold War, SCO has expanded from six founding members to “large families” in 26 countries in Asia, Europe and Africa, becoming the world’s largest regional cooperation agency, both local and population.
As an important step towards solidifying Iran’s role within this family, the Iranian president arrived in Tianjin on August 31, attending the largest gathering in SCO history.
On the same day, Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei posted a message on social media platform X, sharing his views on China-Iran’s relations in three languages: Chinese, Persian and English.
“Iran and China are two countries with ancient civilizations on both sides of Asia, and have the power to transform the region and the world,” writes Khamenei. “Implementing all the different aspects of a strategic partnership agreement will help pave the way for this.”
China and Iran share a deep-rooted traditional friendship that was promoted to a comprehensive strategic partnership in 2016. Amidst the rapid global change, the strategic importance of this relationship has become even more pronounced.
Following the SCO Summit, Pezeschkian will be taking part in an event commemorating the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Japanese attacks and the Chinese resistance against the world anti-fascist war.
Global South’s key platform
The Tianjin Summit is coming at a time when the international system is turmoil and unilateral unilateralism is on the rise, making SCO a vital global South platform for finding collective voices on the global stage and walking a new path.
The effectiveness of SCOs in this respect comes from a set of establishment principles characterized by mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultation, respect for the diversity of civilization, and the pursuit of common development.
This guided framework allows SCOs to manage families of a wide range of countries with different political and economic systems and diverse interests. A group’s consensus-based approach to decision-making ensures a unified voice. This is particularly relevant to a world filled with geopolitical tensions.
Taking advantage of these strengths, the SCO has expressed serious concern over the growing tensions in the Middle East, and issued a rare and strong condemnation of US military strikes against three Iranian nuclear facilities in June, calling it a serious violation of international law and a destructive act of world peace.
The organization’s attitude towards a one-sided attitude emphasizes its commitment to multilateralism. This is more relevant as the world is defined from the unipolar international order defined by post-Cold War Western domination to a more multipolar system.
This shift is further emphasized by the diverse and unprecedented lineup of summit participants. In addition to leaders of member states such as Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the rally attracted leaders from Central Asia and almost all Southeast Asian countries.
The guest list was particularly notable for the presence of Turkish President Recept Tayyip Erdogan. As a NATO member and one of the organization’s 14 dialogue partners, his attendees highlighted the expansion of SCO’s global appeal.
This suggests that the current international order is undergoing significant geopolitical changes, making the SCO’s role more important than ever in maintaining regional peace and stability.