All eight countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) have confirmed the participation of their leaders in the summit, which is expected to be held in Samarkand on September 15-16, SCO Secretary-General Zhang Ming said at a special briefing Friday.
"As of today, all SCO member countries have already confirmed the leaders' participation in this summit," he said.
"As for the format of the summit, all eight parties hope for a speedy return to our traditional format, which is more effective," he pointed out. "However, all parties are also aware that the pandemic is a reality, the virus is constantly changing," the secretary-general continued. "There are many unknown variables at this time. I cannot make predictions at this time, but I can tell you that there are positive hopes on all sides," he stressed.
The secretary-general also noted that the upcoming summit will be an important milestone in the organization's development.
The SCO is a permanent inter-governmental international organization founded in June 2001 in Shanghai. The current members are Russia, India, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. On September 17, 2021, the participants in the SCO summit in Dushanbe signed a document on cooperation to start the process of Iran's admission to the organization.
Earlier, Zhang Ming said that Belarus had applied to join the organization as a full member.
GSV "Russia - Islamic world"
Photo: sco-russia2020.ru/Creative Commons 4.0
Based on materials from TASS