Armenian PM arrives in Tianjin for SCO summit

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan arrived in the northern Chinese port city of Tianjin on Sunday morning to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit 2025 scheduled for Sunday and Monday.

Following a recent visit to China by its foreign minister, Armenia, currently a dialogue partner of the SCO, has formally applied for full membership of the organization, which now has 10 member states, alongside two observer states and 14 dialogue partners.

During his trip, Pashinyan will also attend a grand military parade commemorating the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War on September 3 in Beijing.

Since the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Armenia in 1992, the development of friendly ties between the two countries has maintained steady and healthy, with new cooperation achievements made in various fields.

China is now Armenia's second-largest trading partner.

Chinese stocks closed lower on Friday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index down 0.26 percent to 4,101.91 points.

The Shenzhen Component Index closed 0.18 percent lower at 14,281.08 points.

The ChiNext Index, tracking China's Nasdaq-style board of growth enterprises, lost 0.2 percent to close at 3,361.02 points.

The ChiNext Index, together with the Shenzhen Component Index and other indices, reflects the performance of stocks listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.