'Twelve nations' said eyeing membership in six-state Shanghai assembly

MOSCOW, June 3. /TASS/. Twelve states have officially registered interest in joining the six-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), the Kremlin press service reports in documents for a scheduled Wednesday meeting of SCO foreign ministers in Moscow. "Practical launch of the process of SCO expansion will be high priority at the meeting," the press service said, adding that the Eurasian gathering was currently assessing candidacies it identified as India and Pakistan, which had submitted applications for full membership at the SCO summit in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, last year. Iran was also named as wishing to join, and "Belarus, which actively participates in the CSO as a ‘dialogue partner’, wants to upgrade the status to that of observer", the announcement said. Foreign ministers of Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan meet on Wednesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The secretary general and the director of the executive committee of the SCO's regional anti-terrorist unit have also arrived to make final preparations for the SCO summit at Ufa, capital of Russia's Bashkortostan republic on July 8-10. The organisation brings together Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Afghanistan, India, Iran, Mongolia and Pakistan have observer status, while Belarus, Turkey and Sri Lanka are "dialogue partners". Read more