Joint session of the SCO Heads of State Council will be held in Ufa

UFA, 10 July 2015. /Bashinform News Agency, Alim Faizov/. Leaders of Russia, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan will participate in a joint session of the SCO Heads of State Council on Friday.

Over the past two days, Ufa hosting participants and guests of the BRICS Summit, has turned into a centre of global economic and political life, TASS informs. The heads of states discussed the most pressing economic and financial issues, coordinated further interaction and positions on joint projects. The Friday’s Summit is expected to focus mainly on political, social and security issues.

According to the Kremlin aide Yuriy Ushakov the meeting in Ufa would also be attended by leaders of five observer states (Mongolia, India, Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan), and also Turkmenistan’s president, who would join the event as a guest of the host country.

Among those invited are also representatives of international organisations: the United Nations, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), as well as heads of the SCO Business Council and Interbank Association.

The presidents will coordinate procedures for India’s and Pakistan’s inclusion into the SCO. The organization may acquire an unofficial and alternative status of the "Big Eight" association. Iran also seeks to become a full-fledged member. Besides, applications for observer or dialogue partner status from several countries, such as Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Bangladesh, Sri-Lanka, Syria, Ukraine, Maldives, Cambodia and Egypt were received.

After the Summit, a strategy of the SCO development up to 2025 is planned to be approved. The document addresses issues of regional security and a prompt response to emerging challenges and threats, alongside development of transport and infrastructure, energy, agriculture, finance, education, information and communication technology, innovation and environment.

It is also planned to sign an Ufa Declaration outlining member states’ consolidated approaches to further development of the SCO and key international and regional issues. The presidents will sign an agreement on cooperation and coordination on border issues and approve a program of cooperation in combating terrorism, separatism and extremism in the next three years (2016-2018).