Chinese President Xi Jinping attends a group photo session ahead of the "Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Plus" meeting in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Sept. 1, 2026. (Xinhua/Wang Ye)

BEIJING, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping is heading to New Delhi for this year's BRICS gathering just over a week after he took part in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek.

The two back-to-back multilateral engagements converge on a single, defining theme: galvanizing solidarity and cooperation across the Global South.

Photo taken on Aug. 24, 2017 shows a flowerbed at the Xiamen International Conference and Exhibition Center in Xiamen, southeast China's Fujian Province. (Xinhua/Jiang Kehong)

The SCO "takes root in the Global South, its heart beats with the Global South, and it is an important pillar of South-South cooperation," Xi said at the Bishkek summit concluded on Tuesday last week, calling on the SCO to "promote the development and rise of the Global South through the SCO Wisdom."

The Chinese leader is expected to put forward further proposals on Global South cooperation at the upcoming BRICS summit, as he has noted that the BRICS is "standing at the forefront of the Global South."

This year marks the 25th founding anniversary of the SCO and the 20th anniversary of the BRICS cooperation mechanism, both milestone occasions.

Riding the wave of the collective rise of the Global South, BRICS and the SCO have over the years expanded their membership and broadened their networks of developing partners. Their members jointly account for more than half of the world's population and about 30 percent of the global economy. This illustrates the fact that the two groupings have evolved into major platforms for Global South cooperation.

Xi has not only joined other leaders of member countries in pushing for their respective expansions, but also put forward new ideas and initiatives like the "BRICS Plus" cooperation approach and the building of an SCO community with a shared future, opening up new vistas for win-win cooperation among Global South countries.

"China has consistently provided a clear vision and momentum for BRICS and the SCO, both conceptually and practically," said Humprey Arnaldo Russel, head of the ASEAN-China Research Center at the University of Indonesia.

"It transformed BRICS from a relatively exclusive grouping into a broader platform for cooperation among developing countries and the wider Global South," he added.