Putin arrives in Uzbekistan for SOC summit

On September 15, Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Uzbekistan’s Samarkand, where he will take part in a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and is also scheduled for a number of meetings in bilateral and multilateral formats.

The Russian president will meet for talks with his Kyrgyz counterpart Sadyr Japarov, President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdymukhamedov, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, Prime Minister of Pakistan Shahbaz Sharif, and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the same day, TASS reports. In addition, a trilateral Russia-Mongolia-China summit will follow the presidential meetings.

On September 16, Putin will take part in the meeting of the Council of the SCO Heads of State. The Russian leader is expected to speak about his vision of the tasks facing the organization and suggest a number of measures to improve its activity.

On the same day, he will hold bilateral talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev.

After all the SCO events, Putin is expected to speak with Russian journalists.

Established in 2001, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization now includes India, China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran, and Mongolia are observer countries, and Azerbaijan, Armenia, Cambodia, Nepal, Turkey, and Sri Lanka enjoy the partner status.

It is expected that the Samarkand summit in mid-September will complete the procedure of admitting Iran to the organization and will grant partner status to Egypt, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. The organization is also considering Belarus’ application for full-fledged membership.