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The SCO leaves Bishkek with 28 documents and two new centers

The 25th anniversary summit closed on 1 September with 28 signed texts, the Bishkek Declaration at the top: charter amendments that add two new bodies to the organization's structure, a roadmap for settling more trade in national currencies, and sectoral programs running to 2030.

The SCO leaves Bishkek with 28 documents and two new centers

The most detailed tally, carried by Bishkek's Economist.kg, puts the total at 28: 24 documents signed at the level of heads of state and 4 more between governments. Signed at the heads' level: the anniversary declaration, the charter amendments, the statute of a Universal Center for countering challenges and threats to member states' security, and regulations for the executive committee of a new Anti-Drug Center.

The declaration itself reads as legal consolidation. It records 25 years of a “solid legal foundation”, opposes unilateral coercive measures that contradict the UN Charter, and comes out against the militarization of information technology.

The money lines are quieter. Members endorsed a roadmap for a gradual rise of national currencies in mutual settlements and recorded progress toward an SCO Development Bank, a formula short of a founding act. The security architecture thickens on paper while the bank remains a line about progress.

The sectoral texts run long: anti-narcotics and information-security programs to 2030, a biodiversity initiative to 2031, a “Green Technology Corridor” to 2030, a ports-and-logistics plan, and a concept for data centers and an AI industry.

“The security architecture thickens on paper while the bank remains a line about progress.”

For the region the currencies roadmap lands on live practice: KazMunayGas built the order book for its yuan bond on the AIX last week, with settlement due 2 September.

The bilateral layer was still printing at our close. Outcomes of Putin's meetings scheduled for the day, Erdogan and Pashinyan among them, had not surfaced in the wires by 16:00 Moscow.