ASTANA: President of China Xi Jinping, President of Russia Vladimir Putin, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will participate in the 24th meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which will be held from July 3 to 4 in Astana, Kazakhstan.
Russian state news agency citing Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reported that Putin was preparing for the meeting in Astana. Meanwhile, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying has also confirmed Xi’s participation a day earlier.
Hua added that after the meeting in Astana, the Chinese leader will stay longer in Kazakhstan and pay a visit to Tajikistan at the invitations of Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and Tajik President Emomali Rahmon.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who did not attend Ukraine’s peace summit in June, is likely to participate in the event in Astana as well.
The SCO is an intergovernmental organization founded by China and Russia in 2001 in Shanghai. It deals with Eurasian political, economic, security, and defence issues.
The organization consists of nine countries, including China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
Putin and Xi are both members of the Council of Heads of State, a supreme decision-making body of the SCO. Putin and Xi met last year in May when the Russian president came to China for a two-day visit.
Türkiye president Recep Tayyip Erdogan will also be in Astana on Wednesday and Thursday for the SCO summit. The Turkish president is expected to hold long-delayed bilateral discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin there as well. This year, Belarus is expected to join the SCO.
The summit will also focus on a ceasefire in Gaza, where Israel killed thousands of innocent Palestinians since a new round of conflict started last October.
According to Turkish media outlets t Erdogan’s meeting with Putin on the sidelines of the summit will focus on the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Israel’s attacks on Gaza, the situation in Syria as well as a planned natural gas hub in Türkiye.
Prime Minister of Pakistan, Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif will also attend the twin Summits of the SCO Council of Heads of State (CHS) and SCO Plus from 03-04 July 2024 in Astana, Kazakhstan.
