SCO Summit Opens in Dushanbe
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The 14th summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) kicked off in Turkmenistan’s capital on Friday morning with delegates from 15 countries in attendance.
Presidents of the SCO full members delivered speeches by turn at the opening of the summit.
The SCO is an intergovernmental organization that was founded in 2001 in Shanghai by the leaders of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
Observer states include Iran, India, Afghanistan, Mongolia and Pakistan.
Turkey, Sri Lanka, Belarus and Turkmenistan have also attended the gathering as special guests.
The SCO member states occupy a territory of around 30 million and 189 thousand square kilometers, which makes up around three fifths of the Eurasian continent, and have a population of 1.5 billion, which makes up a quarter of the planet’s population according to the SCO official website.
On Wednesday, Ria Novosti website cited Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying that Iran, Pakistan and India may be able to join the SCO in the near future.
“At the summit in Dushanbe, we will make decisions that will complete the formation of the legal, administrative and financial conditions for the admission of new members to the SCO. This will provide an opportunity to begin the expansion process during the Russian presidency,” Lavrov said in an article published on Wednesday in Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
