Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh (Photo: VGP)

20 heads of state and government and leaders of 10 international organizations will attend the Summit, the largest one since the SCO was founded in 2001.

SCO carries forward the “Shanghai Spirit”

The SCO Summit is one of China’s most important diplomatic events in 2025, with the agenda focusing on promoting the “Shanghai Spirit,” strengthening cooperation mechanisms, holding in-depth discussions on international issues, and fostering multilateral cooperation in politics, security, economy, trade, and culture.

Chinese President Xi Jinping will chair the 25th Meeting of the SCO Council of Heads of State and the SCO+ Summit.

The leaders are expected to adopt the “Tianjin Declaration,” approve an SCO development strategy for the next 10 years, and issue documents to mark the 80th anniversary of the victory over fascism and the founding of the United Nations.

Since its establishment 24 years ago, the SCO has expanded from 6 founding members to 10 member states, 2 observer states, and 14 dialogue partners, totaling 26 countries across Asia, Europe, and Africa. It is now the world's largest regional international organization by both geographical area and population.

With its principle of openness and inclusiveness, the SCO welcomes all countries that recognize the “Shanghai Spirit” and encourages more like-minded nations and partners to join. Vietnam’s participation in the SCO as a guest of the host country aims to promote multilateral cooperation, exchange views, and advance shared goals in security, economics, and culture.

Strengthening Vietnam-China relations under the six key orientations

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh’s working trip takes place at a time when Vietnam-China relations have developed positively and achieved many important results.

This year marks the 75th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic ties. Both countries have maintained flexible forms of high-level exchanges, such as state visits, working visits, and phone talks.

In a phone talk on January 15, Vietnamese Party General Secretary To Lam and Chinese General Secretary and President Xi Jinping announced the launch of the Vietnam-China Humanistic Exchange Year 2025. In April, General Secretary and President Xi paid his fourth state visit to Vietnam, demonstrating a high level of trust and strategic bilateral ties.

Economicand investment cooperation has seen strong growth, with two-way trade in 2024 exceeding 205 billion USD.

In the first seven months of this year trade rose 21% to 137 billion USD. Tourism has also surged, with 3.1 million Chinese visitors to Vietnam, accounting for 25.5% of all international arrivals.

These figures show that the Vietnam-China community with a shared future is in its best stage, guided by the six key orientations agreed upon by their leaders:stronger political trust, more practical defense–security cooperation, more effective economic–trade cooperation, more humanistic  exchanges,closer multilateral coordination, and more effective management and handling of differences.

“China and Vietnam always regard each other’s growth as their own benefit. Since establishing the community with a shared future, bilateral relations have seen outstanding progress, especially in key areas such as green economy, digital economy, wind power, solar energy, and agricultural products. Stable China-Vietnam relations create favorable conditions for both countries to develop sustainably in a volatile world,” Chinese Ambassador to Vietnam Xia Wei said at the Vietnam-China Friendship Year people-to-people exchange in April 2025.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh’s participation in the 2025 SCO Summit will contribute to deepening the Vietnam-China comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership, while affirming Vietnam’s active role in regional and global multilateral cooperation mechanisms.