Iran’s President Rouhani to attend SCO summit in Kyrgyzstan

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani will travel to Kyrgyzstan to attend the September summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) on the sidelines of which he will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Iran’s foreign minister says.

“The Shanghai summit is of great importance to us and the president is scheduled… to hold bilateral talks with the heads of state who attend [the summit],” Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Wednesday.

“Dr Rouhani-Putin meeting will be among the most important programs of the Islamic Republic of Iran in this summit,” he added.

The Iranian president’s visit to the Central Asian country will be his first foreign trip since taking office on August 4.

The SCO summit will be held in the Kyrgyz capital city of Bishkek on September 13, bringing together heads of both member and observer states.

Iran, Afghanistan, India, Mongolia and Pakistan have an observer status in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is an intergovernmental organization that was founded in 2001 in Shanghai by the leaders of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.