On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the upcoming SCO summit in Uzbekistan in September over the phone with his Tajikistan counterpart Emomali Rahmon, the Kremlin press service reports.
"The two leaders discussed some topical issues of further development of friendly Russia-Tajikistan relations, as well as the subjects of the upcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Samarkand in September," the statement reads.
According to the press service of the head of Tajikistan, Putin and Rahmon also "exchanged opinions on topical international problems and some issues of regional cooperation, including ensuring regional security with an emphasis on the situation in Afghanistan."
Following the talks, agreements were reached to continue contacts on these issues, and the importance of further building of multifaceted cooperation between the parties was noted.
The summit of the SCO is scheduled for September 15-16. Russia, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are currently members of the organization. The observer countries are Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia; the partner countries are Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Turkey and Sri Lanka. Recently, many states have expressed a desire to join the SCO. In particular, it is expected that during the Samarkand summit Iran will complete the procedure of joining the association, and that Egypt, Qatar and Saudi Arabia will be granted the status of a dialogue partner.
Belarus's application to join the SCO as a full-fledged member is also under study.
GSV "Russia - Islamic world"
Photo: official website of the President of the Russian Federation
Based on materials from TASS