BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 4. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Heads of State Council meeting will be held in Islamabad, Pakistan, in October, said Prime Minister of Pakistan Shehbaz Sharif on X, TurkicWorld reports.
"Pakistan looks forward to welcoming the SCO family at the SCO Heads of State Council meeting in Islamabad this October," the publication stated.
The SCO Summit, chaired by Kazakhstan, is currently taking place at the Independence Palace in Astana.
Attending the event are heads of state and government from Kazakhstan, India, Iran, China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Belarus, Mongolia, Azerbaijan, Qatar, the UAE, Türkiye, and Turkmenistan, along with the SCO Secretary-General and the Executive Director of the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure.
The UN Secretary-General and the heads of such international organizations as the CIS, ECO, CICA, CSTO, EEC, and IOFS are also participating in the summit.
For the first time, the event will be held in the form of a meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the SCO member states and the SCO Plus.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization was founded in 2001 with an initial membership of six countries: Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. India and Pakistan joined as full members in 2017, followed by Iran in 2023. At the current summit, Belarus has been officially accepted as a full member of the SCO.
