Kyrgyzstan takes world stage with Nomad Games and SCO summit
Bishkek marked 35 years of independence by opening sixth World Nomad Games and hosting summit that drew more than dozen world leaders
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan (MNTV) — Kyrgyzstan has thrust itself into the international spotlight, marking 35 years of independence on Aug. 31 while opening the sixth World Nomad Games and preparing to host a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit — the China- and Russia-led regional bloc — that brought more than a dozen foreign leaders to Bishkek, The Times of Central Asia reported.
The Games returned to their birthplace: Kyrgyzstan launched them in 2014 and hosted the first three editions before they moved to Türkiye in 2022 and Kazakhstan in 2024. This year’s run through Sept. 6.
The opening ceremony filled the new Bishkek Arena — still partly under construction, with about 30,000 spectators — and began not with politics but pop, as Kyrgyz performers played to a crowd that rose to sing along with veteran singer Baktiyar Toktorov’s hit “Yza.”
The pageantry followed. More than 3,000 athletes from 104 countries paraded in, the loudest roar reserved for the 517-strong home team, before a theatrical retelling of Kyrgyz history swept across the arena floor with galloping horses and trick riders.
Among the leaders attending were Russia’s Vladimir Putin, India’s Narendra Modi, Türkiye’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Iran’s Masoud Pezeshkian, and Belarus’s Alexander Lukashenko, alongside the Central Asian presidents and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
One heavyweight was absent: Chinese President Xi Jinping, in Bishkek for the SCO summit, skipped the opening because of the deadly flooding and landslides on the Nepal-Tibet border, where rescue efforts were continuing; his bilateral meetings went ahead.
President Sadyr Japarov used his speech to tie the Games to his development agenda, promoting the planned China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway and the Kambar-Ata-1 hydropower project, and announced that Russia would host the seventh Games in Tatarstan in 2028.
“Our foundation is independence, and our roots are in nomadic civilization,” he said. The Games now move to Issyk-Kul through Sept. 6.
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