Leaders of Russia, China, Pakistan among participants at this year's India-chaired SCO summit

By Anadolu staff

ANKARA (AA) — India is set to chair a virtual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) on Tuesday, with the leaders of Russia and China among those attending, along with the premier of regional rival Pakistan.

At this year's SCO Council of Heads of State, Kazakhstan will be taking over as chair of the eight-nation group from India, while Iran, currently an observer nation, will be formally admitted as a full member.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be chairing the bloc's 23rd summit under India's first-ever chairmanship, according to Indian Foreign Ministry.

All SCO member states — China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan — were invited to the summit, while Iran, Belarus, and Mongolia were invited as observer states, the ministry said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had announced last week that Iran would be joining the SCO on Tuesday.

"At the upcoming meeting of the SCO Heads of State Council on July 4, we will formalize the full membership of Iran, sign a memorandum of obligations for Belarus and launch the procedure for its full accession to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization," Lavrov said Friday in opening remarks of the SCO National Peoples' Diplomacy Centre in Moscow.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will be attending the SCO summit as well, according to an announcement made by the Kremlin on Monday.

Turkmenistan was also invited as the guest of the chair, as is SCO tradition, the ministry added, adding that the theme of the summit would be "Towards a Secure SCO."

Last year, the SCO heads of state summit was held in Samarkand, Uzbekistan and was also attended by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

China said last Friday that President Xi Jinping would "deliver important remarks" at the meeting and "together with other participating leaders, chart the course for the future growth of the organization."

"With the concerted efforts of all sides, the SCO will achieve greater progress and boost development and prosperity in regional countries," said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning.

At last year's G-20 summit in Bali, India's Modi and China's Xi shook hands and exchanged words — their first public meeting since May 2020 when the two countries were locked in a standoff at the disputed de facto border in the Jammu and Kashmir region.

Pakistan has also confirmed that its Premier Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif will participate in the SCO summit.

"The leaders will deliberate on important global and regional issues and chart the future direction of cooperation among SCO Member States," the South Asian nation's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"The Prime Minister's participation in the CHS (Council of Heads of State) illustrates the high importance that Pakistan attaches to the SCO, as an important forum for regional security and prosperity, and enhanced engagement with the region."

In May, Pakistan's Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, arrived in the Indian city of Goa to attend Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) foreign ministers' meeting.

Zardari's was the first visit by a Pakistani foreign minister to India since 2011, when then-top diplomat Hina Rabbani Khar, now Zardari's deputy, visited the neighboring country. The only senior Pakistani official to travel to India since then was Sartaj Aziz, who in 2016 attended the "Heart of Asia" conference while an aide to then-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on foreign affairs.

Relations between the two arch-rivals plummeted to a new low after August 2019, when India scrapped the longstanding special status of Jammu and Kashmir, a disputed region, resulting in Islamabad downgrading its diplomatic ties with New Delhi.