BEIJING -- The upcoming Ufa summit of leaders of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) will make a political decision on India's and Pakistan's accession to the SCO, Vice Chinese Foreign Minister Cheng Guoping said on Monday.
Cheng made the remarks at a news briefing on President Xi Jinping's attendance at the seventh BRICS summit, scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, and the 15th meeting of the Council of SCO Heads of State for Thursday and Friday in Ufa, capital of Russia's Bashkortostan Republic.
The decision on starting procedures for India and Pakistan to join the SCO is scheduled to be adopted at the Ufa summit, which signifies the official start of the SCO expansion and the launch of the legal process of the countries' induction into the SCO, Cheng said.
"As the influence of the SCO's development has expanded, more and more countries in the region have brought up joining the SCO," Cheng said.
"India and Pakistan's admission to the SCO will play an important role in the SCO's development. It will play a constructive role in pushing for the improvement of their bilateral relations," Cheng said.
The SCO, founded in 2001, currently has six member states -- China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, with Afghanistan, India, Iran, Mongolia and Pakistan as observers and Belarus, Turkey and Sri Lanka as dialogue partners.
