Nursultan Nazarbayev and Dmitry Medvedev to discuss preparations for a major SCO event

Today, May 30, during telephone talks, Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev discussed preparations for the 10th anniversary summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Tengrinews.kz reported citing the Kremlin. Astana will be hosting the 10th anniversary summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization June 15. According to Kazakhstan Foreign Affairs Minister Yerzhan Kazykhanov, the summit will focus on summaryizing the SCO activities of the past 10 years, defining directions for further development, and exchanging opinions on the international and regional issues. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is an intergovernmental mutual-security organization which was founded in 2001 in Shanghai by the leaders of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Except for Uzbekistan, the other countries had been members of the Shanghai Five, founded in 1996; after the inclusion of Uzbekistan in 2001, the members renamed the organization. Kazakhstan is this year's rotating chair state of the SCO.