The leaders of Russia, China and India have gathered in Bishkek for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit

Russian President Vladimir Putin has arrived in Kyrgyzstan where he is scheduled to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday.

The three national leaders will later attend the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a Eurasian group of nations seeking to improve security and economic ties.

Originally a five-member regional group that included China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan which signed its first agreement in Shanghai, the SCO has since expanded to become the biggest regional organizations for cooperation. It includes ten permanent members, 15 dialogue partners and two observer states.

The group has a range of political, security and economic goals and has been called by its members a key mechanism in transition to a new multipolar world system, replacing the period of US unipolarity that followed the Cold War.

The SCO states say Western nations are engaging in increasingly hostile and disruptive activity as their global dominance slips away, and having a forum where other nations can agree on joint responses to new challenges becomes more important.