Tajik President Emomali Rahmon today left for the Kazakh capital, Astana, to participate in a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

Presidential advisers on international and economic matters, Foreign Minister, Minister of Energy and Water Resources, and Head of the State Committee for National Security are accompanying Rahmon on his trip to Kazakhstan, according to the Tajik president’s official website.

The SCO summit is taking place in Astana from June 8-9 and Rahmon is expected to hold a number of bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the summit.   

Leaders of the SCO member nations are expected to discuss state and prospects of further expansion of cooperation between their countries and exchange views on problems of regional and international policy.  

While in Astana, President Rahmon is also scheduled to attend an official opening ceremony of EXPO 2017 that will kicked off on June 10. 

Meanwhile China announced on June 1 that India and Pakistan’s admission as full members to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization will be formalized at the Organization’s summit in Astana.  

During the 2015 summit in Ufa, Russia, the SCO formally adopted a resolution starting the process to admit India and Pakistan into the organization as full members.

Both the countries signed a Memorandum of Obligations to join the organization at last year’s summit in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization currently has six full members -- China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.  India and Pakistan are acceding states.  Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia are four observer states, and SCO’s dialogue partners include Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Turkey.  ACEAN, CIS and Turkmenistan are guest attendances.

The Organization’s six full members account for 60% of the land mass of Eurasia and its population is a quarter of the world’s population.