AKIPRESS.COM - At the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the Republic of India, President Xi Jinping will attend via video-conference in Beijing the 23rd Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and deliver important remarks on July 4, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying announced.

It was reported that the summit will be chaired by India. All SCO member states - Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan - were invited to participate in the summit. In addition, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia were invited as observer states. Turkmenistan was also invited as a guest of the chairman.

In addition, the heads of two SCO bodies - the SCO Secretariat and the SCO RATS - will be present. The heads of six international and regional organizations, namely the UN, ASEAN, CIS, CSTO, EAEU and CICA also received an invitation.

The theme of the summit is "Towards a SECURE SCO". The Prime Minister of India proposed the abbreviation SECURE at the SCO summit in 2018, it means security, economy and trade, connectivity, unity, respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity and environment. These topics were touched upon during India's chairmanship of the SCO.