Presidents of Turkmenistan and Russia Serdar Berdimuhamedov and Vladimir Putin will hold bilateral talks on the sidelines of the SCO summit to be held on September 15-16 in Samarkand (Uzbekistan). This was announced by the assistant to the Russian leader for international Affairs Yuriy Ushakov, the Interfax news agency reports.

It is expected that the SCO summit will be attended by the leaders of fifteen states, including China, Kazakhstan, India, Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkey and other countries.

Serdar Berdimuhamedov will take part for the first time as an honorary guest in a meeting of the Council of Heads of SCO member States after taking office as President of Turkmenistan in March this year.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is an international organization founded by the leaders of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. On June 9, 2017, India and Pakistan became full members of the SCO, and on September 17, 2021, the SCO leaders approved the admission of Iran to full members of the SCO, which is expected to take place in September 2022.

The SCO is not a military bloc or an open regular security meeting, but occupies an intermediate position. The main tasks of the organization are declared to strengthen stability and security in a wide area uniting the participating states, the fight against terrorism, separatism, extremism, drug trafficking, the development of economic cooperation, energy partnership, scientific and cultural interaction.