Heads of state gather for SCO Summit in Astana

ASTANA. KAZINFORM The heads of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Member and Observer States will meet to participate in the next SCO Summit today, Kazinform correspondent reports.

Presidents Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan, Xi Jinping of the People's Republic of China, Almazbek Atambayev of Kyrgyzstan, Vladimir Putin of Russia, Emomali Rahmon of Tajikistan and Shavkat Mirziyoyev of Uzbekistan will attend the SCO Summit.

According to the media information, the SCO Observer States' presidents Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan, Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus, Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj of Mongolia, as well as Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Ibrahim Rahimpur, will take part in the SCO Summit. In addition, the summit will be attended by Narendra Modi and Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, the prime ministers of India and Pakistan, i.e. the countries that are to become new members of the Organization today.

It is noteworthy that the summit guests will include the following leaders of the international organizations: Secretary-General of the United Nations António Gutteres, Executive Director of Secretariat of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building in Asia Gong Jianwei, Executive Secretary of the Commonwealth of Independent States Sergey Lebedev, Deputy Secretary General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization Amanzhol Zhankuliyev and Secretary General of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Le Luong Minh.