ISLAMABAD: The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, which begins in the Russian city of Ufa from Thursday, is likely to set the ball rolling for entry of Pakistan and India into its folds, a senior diplomat said.

This would be the first time that the SCO would open its doors to new members since its creation 14 years ago.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will travel to Ufa for the two-day summit of the regional security bloc. This would also be the first visit by the prime minister to Russia since his election in 2013.

“Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif will lead the Pakistan delegation to the Meeting of the Heads of States Council of the Shanghai Coope­ration Organisation (SCO) in Ufa on 9-10 July 2015,” the Foreign Office said in a statement.

Sharif to attend the summit in Ufa

Both Pakistan and India currently hold the status of ‘observer states’ at the six-member organisation, which was founded in 2001. Other countries with obse­r­ver status at the SCO include Iran, Afghanistan and Mongolia.

The current six members are China, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. The group was originally formed to counter terrorism threat.

Pakistan had applied for the SCO membership in 2006, while India expressed its desire to join the grouping last year.

The SCO Council of Foreign Ministers had at their last meeting approved Pakistani and Indi­an applications for consideration.

Although many have been interpreting the imminent SCO Council of Heads of States’ decision as Pakistan’s entry into the SCO, a diplomat, who wished not to be named, said the process would be long drawn. “There would be no automatic admission, Pakistan would instead be required to meet certain requirements,” he said.

One of the objectives of the visit of the prime minister and president to the Central Asian states over the last year was to lobby for Pakistan’s admission to the SCO.

Mr Sharif, during his stay in Ufa, would also attend the Outreach meeting of the leaders of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) cou­n­tries, SCO Mem­ber and Observer States, Eurasian Econ­omic Union Members, and Turkmenistan.

Additionally, the prime minister would hold bilateral meetings with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian Presi­dent Vladimir Putin and some of the other leaders attending the sum­mit. PM Sharif is also expe­cted to witness the signing of a $2 billion deal with a Russian com­pany for laying of an LNG gas pipeline from Karachi to Lahore.

Published in Dawn, July 7th, 2015

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