“Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Bishkek and make a state visit to Kyrgyzstan, Beijing has confirmed. The trip, which also includes a state visit to Egypt, will run from August 30 to September 3. The formal meeting of the SCO Council of Heads of State is scheduled for September 1. As many as 21 heads of state are expected in Kyrgyzstan during the week, according to presidential spokesman Askat Alagozov.”
“The state visit format gives Xi and Japarov a bilateral program alongside the summit. The most prominent economic issue is likely to be the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway, a project discussed for decades that is now under construction across some of Kyrgyzstan’s most difficult terrain.”
“The Kyrgyz authorities put the railway’s construction cost at about $4.7 billion. China holds 51% of China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan Railway Company LLC, while Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan each hold 24.5%. Roughly half of the cost is being financed through a 35-year Chinese loan to the company…”
“The railway also places Kyrgyzstan inside a larger shift in regional trade. Commerce between China and the five Central Asian states passed $100 billion in 2025. Bishkek wants a larger share of that traffic and more of the value created along transit routes…”
“The summit will bring several difficult relationships into the same room. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pakistan’s Shehbaz Sharif are both due in Bishkek, although no bilateral meeting between them has been announced. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he plans to meet Modi during the SCO gathering.”
“Putin is also set to meet Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, with Iran’s ambassador to Moscow confirming plans for talks on the sidelines of the summit…”
https://timesca.com/xi-jinping-heads-to-bishkek-as-kyrgyzstan-prepares-to-host-21-heads-of-state/