TIANJIN, August 31. /TASS/. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s (SCO) summit will kick off in China’s northern city of Tianjin on Sunday.
The event will bring together the leaders of over 20 countries, including Russian President Vladimir Putin.
According to Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Liu Bin, the summit will be the largest event in the organization's history. The diplomat noted that the meeting’s participants planned to assess the SCO’s activities, set the course for the organizations’ further development, and enhance solidarity and consensus on key issues on the international agenda.
Apart from the leaders of SCO member states and some other nations, the summit will also involve the heads of ten international organizations, including United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) Secretary General Sergey Lebedev, and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Secretary General Kao Kim Hourn.
Russian Ambassador to China Igor Morgulov pointed out that the SCO did not press anyone to choose sides, nor did it seek to impose its opinions on others; and its activities weren’t directed against third countries. According to the Russian envoy, the organization's attractiveness is based on its pursuit of the principles of equality, consensus, mutual trust, balanced interests, mutual benefit, and respect for cultural diversity, as well as on member states’ determination to avoid hostile actions against each other. Morgulov highlighted Moscow’s readiness to work together with Beijing to strengthen the organization’s authority across the world.
