Council for International Relations & Diplomacy, The ChangeMakers Desk.

Bishkek, September 1, 2026 — Prime Minister Narendra Modi used India’s address at the 26th Summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, to press member states toward converting a quarter-century of dialogue into “tangible outcomes,” while renewing New Delhi’s uncompromising position on cross-border terrorism.

Speaking on the sidelines of Uzbekistan’s Independence Day celebrations and a day after Kyrgyzstan marked its own, the Prime Minister opened his remarks by thanking President Sadyr Japarov for hosting the summit and referencing the World Nomad Games’ opening ceremony as a display of the region’s shared civilisational heritage.

Security, Connectivity, Opportunity — Now to Be Delivered

Reiterating the three-pillar framework — Security, Connectivity, Opportunity (SCO) — that he had first outlined at the previous summit, Modi told fellow leaders that the coming twenty-five years must be judged by outcomes rather than intent. “Our shared geography” must become “shared opportunities,” he said, calling for a shift from government-driven cooperation to people-driven partnership.

On security, the Prime Minister was unambiguous: the grouping cannot afford to remain locked into an “action-reaction” posture on terrorism. He called for dismantling the entire architecture of terror financing, recruitment, radicalisation and safe havens, and for a single, undivided voice among member states against double standards. In pointed language, he warned nations that shelter or use terrorism as an instrument of state policy that it can never function as a “strategic asset.”

He also linked regional security to the situation in Afghanistan, reaffirming India’s continuing humanitarian and developmental assistance to the Afghan people, and drew a wider connection between conflicts in West Asia and disruptions to global energy security, maritime trade and supply chains — burdens he said fall hardest on the Global South. India, he said, continues to advocate resolution of conflicts through dialogue and diplomacy rather than the battlefield. Narcotics trafficking, he added, is as much a security threat as a social one, and he backed the SCO’s dedicated centres on organised crime, information security and narcotics to become vehicles for real coordination rather than symbolic bodies.

Connectivity With Conditions

On the second pillar, Modi backed efforts to expand trade and market linkages — roads, railways, air corridors, simplified customs, digital documentation and more efficient logistics — but conditioned India’s support on respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all states, which he described as core to the SCO Charter itself. The remark is consistent with India’s longstanding reservations over connectivity initiatives that transit disputed territory.

People-to-People Ties as the Real Metric

On “Opportunity,” the Prime Minister argued that the success of the SCO should be measured not in summit declarations but in the number of new opportunities created for youth, new markets opened for entrepreneurs, and tangible gains for farmers through technology. He pointed to Indian-led initiatives — the SCO Start-up Forum, the Young Authors’ Conclave, and the Young Scientists’ Forum — as examples of the youth-first approach he wants the bloc to institutionalise, and confirmed that the first session of India’s proposed SCO Civilizational Dialogue Forum will be held in India later this year.

Closing With Aitmatov

Modi closed by invoking Kyrgyz literary icon Chingiz Aitmatov’s observation that people tend to dwell on what divides them rather than what unites them — a line he framed as directly relevant to the SCO’s own diversity of membership and interests. He affirmed India’s readiness to contribute to the grouping’s “shared journey” as it enters its next twenty-five years.

Reporting based on the Prime Minister’s Office statement issued at the 26th SCO Summit, Bishkek, September 1, 2026.