“The meetings & talks have been productive”, he tweeted before leaving for Turkmenistan, the fourth leg of his six-nation tour.
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SCO Summit is being held in Ufa, Russia, on July 8-10, 2015.
“The evolution of the SCO is taking place at a complicated stage in the development of worldwide relations and amidst the emergence of a multipolar world”, the group said in a declaration after the meeting.
The BRICS Summit will address billion-dollar initiatives aimed at advancing its five members: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. “India will be happy to host the first Brics trade fair”, Modi said in his remarks at the Brics Business Council meeting at the seventh Brics Summit.
“India is particularly interested because it lacks direct access to Central Asia, and it sees SCO membership as a way to get a better foothold on the region”.
Xi, in his speech, said the SCO should continue to expand external exchanges with other regional and global organisations and improve the dialogue and cooperation mechanism with its observers and dialogue partners.
Mr. Modi also accepted the invitation of Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif to visit Pakistan during the SAARC summit in 2016.
In a key briefing after the summit of SCO leaders in the Russian city of Ufa, Putin announced Friday that India and Pakistan will join the SCO, a first time expansion of the heavy-weight Eurasian group since its inception in 2001.
Russia’s increased focus on Asia since the crisis in Ukraine began has brought some successes: on July 9 its finance minister said China had bought around $1 billion worth of Russian domestic bonds this year.
Along with India, the process to include Pakistan as a member was also initiated here today.
India was made an Observer in the SCO in 2005 and it made an application a year ago for full membership of the grouping whose focus is on connectivity, counter-terrorism cooperation, bolstering cooperation in energy sector, enhancing trade and dealing with drug trafficking.
Assuring India’s full cooperation to the SCO, Modi said: “For the past few centuries, we have all looked away from the centre of this great landmass, towards the sea and other regions”.
In particular, Putin called on the SCO to promptly start the implementation of the 2016-2018 cooperation agreement on the fight against terrorism and separatism.
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Established in 1996, the SCO is a political, economic and military organization that incorporates China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
