Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers his opening remarks at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit in Tianjin on Sept. 1, 2025.
Evelyn Cheng
TIANJIN, China — Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday urged members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization to strengthen artificial intelligence cooperation, while rejecting what he called a “Cold War mentality.”
Xi was speaking at the largest-ever summit of the SCO to date, with more than 20 foreign leaders gathered in Tianjin, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The meeting comes as China seeks to cast itself as a global peacemaker, against a backdrop of persistent trade tensions with the United States, Russia’s war in Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Xi said China has invested $84 billion in other SCO countries and pledged support for 10,000 students to join Beijing’s “Luban” vocational education program. He added that the SCO gathering presents an opportunity to chart a new phase of high-quality development and cooperation.
Ahead of his remarks, Xi briefly gathered with Modi and Putin during a photo session with all SCO members.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin (front L) speaks with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi (C) and China’s President Xi Jinping during the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Tianjin on September 1, 2025.
Alexander Kazakov | Afp | Getty Images
Xi is expected to meet with Putin this week, with the Russian leader scheduled to stay in China for a military parade in Beijing to commemorate 80 years since the end of World War II.
Over the weekend, Xi met with at least 10 visiting leaders, including Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Manet. On Saturday, he met Modi, with both sides affirming the importance of being partners, not rivals, according to official readouts.
“A stable relationship and cooperation between India and China and their 2.8 billion peoples on the basis of mutual respect, mutual interest and mutual sensitivity are necessary for the growth and development of the two countries,” India’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement following the meeting.
Global peacemaker?
While it remains unclear if the SCO summit will pave the way for any breakthroughs in easing tensions, analysts said that China’s détente with India could help strengthen Beijing’s influence.
“The improvement of relations with India is a big deal. It allows India to access highly critical intellectual property that it needs if it is to industrialize and boost manufacturing,” Marko Papic, chief strategist, GeoMacro Strategy BCA Access, said in an email.
“But, over the long term, the U.S. is losing the propaganda battle to paint China as the trouble-maker-in-chief. And that only further ossifies multipolarity,” he said.
Participants of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit 2025 pose for photos at the Meijiang Convention and Exhibition Centre on September 1, 2025 in Tianjin, China.
Pool | Getty Images News | Getty Images
China has taken some “initiative” for economic collaboration as well as peace, said Henry Huiyao Wang, founder and president of the Beijing-based think tank Center for China and Globalization. He also pointed to efforts by China and India to rebuild ties and said he hoped India and Pakistan would do the same.
“[U.S.] President Trump is trying to make a lot of peace, but I think with the help of China, we could do the same too,” Wang said Monday on CNBC’s “The China Connection.”
“China could take advantage of its good relations with Russia to help [broker] the deal for the Russian war in Ukraine,” Wang said, adding that the SCO, or members like China and India, could act as a guarantor for security.
The SCO summit could lead to China building better relations with a slew of countries, Papic said.
SCO leaders signed a “Tianjin Declaration” and approved a development plan for the organization for the next decade through 2035, according to Chinese state media. Details of the text were not immediately available, although the report said members adopted 24 documents on strengthening cooperation on security, the economy and “humanity.”
China will also establish cooperation platforms on new energy, green industry and digital economy, as well as centers for tech innovation, higher education and vocational education, Xi announced during a Monday afternoon session.
Later in the day, China’s top diplomat Wang Yi said that the leaders agreed to launch the SCO Development Bank. He cast the financial institution as yet another multilateral bank. China has led the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, which is headquartered in Beijing.
“Global governance must be achieved by coordination and cooperation, not by unilateral bullying,” Wang said in Mandarin, according to an official English translation, as he took a question about the Global Governance Initiative.
New ‘Global Governance Initiative’
Xi’s opening remarks during the Monday afternoon session included a proposal for a “Global Governance Initiative” without disclosing further details.
It follows similar programs that Xi has announced in the last few years, such as the “Global Development Initiative” and “Global Security Initiative.” In late July, Chinese Premier Li Qiang announced that the country has put forward an AI cooperation organization.
“The Cold War mentality, hegemonism and protectionism remain,“ despite 80 years of peace and cooperation since the end of World War II, Xi said in Mandarin, according to an official English translation. “New threats and challenges are only increasing.”
“Global governance has come to a new crossroads,” he said, urging “commitment to peaceful coexistence” without targeting third parties.
In the context of calling for uniform application of the international rule of law, the Chinese president said: that “the house rules of a few countries should not be imposed upon others.”
— CNBC’s Victoria Yeo contributed to this report
