The 22nd Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) started in Samarkand, the historical city of Uzbekistan.
President Vladimir Putin of Russia, President Xi Jinping of China, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of Kazakhstan, President Sadyr Japarov of Kyrgyzstan, President Emomali Rahmon of Tajikistan, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of Pakistan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India, as well as the leaders of the observer states, President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus, President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh of Mongolia, President Ebrahim Raisi of Iran, and the invited leaders President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, President Serdar Berdimuhamedov of Turkmenistan and President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan are attending the summit hosted by the President of Uzbekistan, Shavkat Mirziyoyev at the congress centre located in the newly-built "Silk Road Samarkand" international tourism complex.
Mirziyoyev welcomed the leaders of SCO member Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Pakistan and India at the congress centre. Prior to the summit, the leaders posed for a photo together.
At the meeting, which began with the participation of the leaders of the SCO member countries first, Mirziyoyev made the opening speech, gave information on the meeting's agenda and expressed his wishes for its success.
The meeting will then proceed with the participation of the observer and invited country leaders. Nearly 30 memorandums covering joint projects and activities for the improvement of the organisation's operations, increasing the regional trade volume, developing mutual cooperation in the fields of industry and transportation and green economy, innovation, digital technologies, logistics, agriculture, medicine and other fields are expected to be signed at the Samarkand Summit of the SCO, which garners attention as it is the first face-to-face summit held in the last three years due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Samarkand declaration regarding the outcomes of the summit, which includes the concrete attitudes of the member countries on the most important regional and global problems and reflects the common approaches towards the development of mutual cooperation between the countries of the organisation, the further improvement of regional stability, security and sustainable economic development, the improvement of transportation corridors and the deepening of cultural relations, will be signed at the end of the summit.