Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will travel to Tianjin, China, from August 31 to September 1 to attend the 25th Heads of State Council meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) as a guest of honour, Türkiye’s Communications Director Burhanettin Duran announced on Friday via a post on the Turkish social media platform NSosyal.

The visit marks Erdogan’s first trip to China in five years and comes amid growing strategic ties between Ankara and Beijing. During the summit, Erdogan is scheduled to address an expanded session of the SCO and hold bilateral talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, as well as other participating leaders.

This year’s SCO summit carries particular weight against the backdrop of global turbulence, as a question mark remains over the Russia-Ukraine ceasefire and the global economy reels from US President Donald Trump’s tariff policies.

“By participating in the SCO Summit, Türkiye aims to assert its presence, strengthen bilateral ties, and engage multilaterally within the framework of the organisation,” said Mehmet Ozkan, Professor of International Relations at the Joint War Institute at Türkiye’s National Defence University.

“Türkiye does not see the SCO as a bloc dominated by any single country,” he told TRT World. “Rather, it sees the organisation as a potential rising multilateral alternative to the Western-dominated international order,” he said.