The rise of a multipolar world is no longer a distant prediction. It is already visible in the changing geography of trade, investment, diplomacy and development. In this transition, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) has an increasingly important role—not as an anti-Western bloc, but as a platform through which Eurasian states can pursue security, connectivity and development on the basis of mutual respect.
The SCO’s significance lies partly in its extraordinary geographic and demographic reach. As UN Secretary-General António Guterres observed at the 2025 SCO Summit, the organization is the world’s largest regional organization by population and geography and is well positioned to help shape a more peaceful, inclusive and sustainable future.
China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has added an important economic dimension to this process. Infrastructure linking markets, energy networks, ports, railways and digital systems can transform geography from a barrier into an opportunity. The World Bank has noted that better-connected transport corridors can increase trade, investment and living standards, although transparency, debt sustainability and environmental safeguards remain essential. For the SCO, therefore, the BRI is most valuable when it produces practical connectivity and genuinely shared economic opportunities.
The emerging “SCO family” can also contribute to global governance reform. Its advantage is diversity: China, Russia, India, Pakistan, Central Asian states and other members bring different civilizations, political systems, economic structures and strategic perspectives to one table. That diversity can strengthen the argument that global governance cannot remain dominated by a narrow group of countries. China’s Global Governance Initiative—centered on sovereign equality, international law, multilateralism, people-centered governance and action—provides one framework for this debate.
Yet multipolarity will be sustainable only if major powers practice the principles they advocate. Respect for international law cannot become selective. Powerful states have a special responsibility to demonstrate restraint, honor treaties and respect the sovereignty of smaller countries. China has consistently emphasized the UN Charter, dialogue and multilateralism, and its cooperation with the United Nations remains substantial. UN officials have themselves described China’s support for multilateralism and the UN as important during a period of international fragmentation. At the same time, China’s growing influence means that its policies will inevitably receive greater international scrutiny. Leadership by example is ultimately measured not by declarations but by consistent conduct.
This is also why multilateralism and dialogue matter. A multipolar world without effective institutions could simply become a more complicated arena for rivalry. The United Nations should remain the central forum for collective security, international law, development and humanitarian cooperation. China’s call to revitalize the UN is therefore significant when understood as an effort to make multilateral institutions more representative and responsive to contemporary realities. The UN’s own UN80 reform process reflects the need to improve efficiency while preserving the organization’s central role.
A stronger SCO can help democratize international relations by giving the Global South greater collective weight. Equality should mean more than formal sovereignty; it should include meaningful access to development finance, technology, markets and decision-making. The objective should not be to replace one hierarchy with another, but to create a system in which countries have greater freedom to pursue development without coercion, exclusion or forced alignment.
Here Pakistan has considerable potential. Its geographic position makes it a natural bridge between South Asia, Central Asia, China and the wider Middle East. Pakistan has been an SCO member since 2017 and has emphasized connectivity, counterterrorism, trade, energy, food security, digital development and poverty alleviation. It chairs the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure for 2025–26 and the SCO Special Working Group on Poverty Alleviation, while CPEC offers a practical example of trans-regional economic integration. Pakistan’s forthcoming leadership of the SCO Council of Heads of State can provide an opportunity to turn these ambitions into concrete projects.
Ultimately, multipolarity should be judged by whether ordinary people benefit from it. Open trade, technological cooperation and resilient supply chains can create jobs, lower costs and spread innovation. China’s development experience and its emphasis on infrastructure, industrialization and technological advancement offer valuable opportunities for developing countries, provided cooperation remains commercially viable, environmentally responsible and mutually beneficial.
The real promise of the SCO, therefore, is not confrontation. It is connectivity over isolation, dialogue over coercion, development over deprivation and cooperation over zero-sum rivalry. If China continues to combine its economic capabilities with responsible diplomacy, while Pakistan uses its strategic geography and diplomatic capacity constructively, the SCO can become an important pillar of a more balanced Eurasia—and a more representative international order.
