President of Russia Vladimir Putin will hold a meeting with President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov on the sidelines of the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Uzbekistan, the Russian Vedomosti newspaper cites the Russian Presidential aide Yuri Ushakov as saying during a press briefing on Tuesday.
On the sidelines of summit to be held in Uzbek city Samarkand on September 15-16, the Russian President will also meet the heads of Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, Iran, China and Turkey, and the prime-ministers of India and Pakistan.
Turkmen President Berdimuhamedov is expected to take part in the SCO summit in Samarkand as a guest-leader.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is an intergovernmental organization founded in Shanghai in June 2001. The SCO member countries are China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, India and Pakistan. The SCO observer countries are Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia, and the partner countries are Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Turkey and Sri Lanka.
At the SCO summit in Dushanbe in September 2021, the procedure for Iran's admission to the organization and granting the status of a dialogue partner to Egypt, Qatar and Saudi Arabia was initiated. This year, Belarus officially applied to join the SCO as a full member.