MNA – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani will participate at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit which will be held on 13-14 June 2019 in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

Kyrgyzstan's presidential office said on Saturday that the presidents of Iran, Afghanistan, Belarus and Mongolia will attend the SCO summit as observers, adding that 20 regional and international documents will be signed at the end of this summit.

The special envoy of Russian President on SCO Bakhtiyor Hakimov said that Iran's accession to SCO is on the agenda of this organization.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is a Eurasian political, economic, and security alliance, the creation of which was announced on 15 June 2001 in Shanghai, China by the leaders of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan; the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Charter, formally establishing the organization, was signed in June 2002 and entered into force on 19 September 2003. Since then, the organization has expanded its membership to eight countries when India and Pakistan joined SCO as full members on 9 June 2017 at a summit in Astana, Kazakhstan.

The Heads of State Council (HSC) is the supreme decision-making body in the SCO, it meets once a year and adopts decisions and guidelines on all important matters of the organization. The SCO is widely regarded as the "alliance of the East", due to its growing centrality in Asia-Pacific, and has been the primary security pillar of the region.