The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation is all set for expansion with Iran joining the grouping as its ninth member while Belarus has applied for membership, its Secretary General Zhang Ming said on Friday.
The decision to admit Iran was made in last year's Dushanbe summit and Belarus has submitted its application, Zhang told a media briefing here ahead of the grouping's summit to be held in Samarkand in Uzbekistan on September 15-16.
He said Iran will become a full member after completing the formalities while Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) member states who follow the system of consensus in deciding admission of new members will take a call on Belarus's application.
This is the first expansion of the SCO after India and Pakistan were admitted to the grouping in 2017. The Beijing-headquartered SCO is an eight-member economic and security bloc consisting of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India and Pakistan.
When asked whether Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend the Samarkand summit, Zhang said so far, all participating countries have confirmed the attendance of their leaders but the format of attendance is not finalised.
The SCO summits in the last two years were held in the virtual format due to COVID-19.
Xi has not travelled outside China since the outbreak of coronavirus in Wuhan towards the end of 2019. He visited Hong Kong on July 1 this year to take part in the 25th-anniversary celebrations of handing over of Hong Kong to China from British rule.
