India to gain full membership of SCO at Astana summit

India will be admitted as a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) during the summit of the regional grouping on June 8-9 in Kazakhstan, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be present.

The prime minister is expected to hold a bilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the summit at Kazakhstan's capital city of Astana.

Pakistan will also be admitted as a full member of the SCO along with India during the Astana summit. However, there is no meeting scheduled between Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif.

About Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO):

· The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), or Shanghai Pact, is a Eurasian political, economic, and military organization which was founded in 1996 in Shanghai by the leaders of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

· These countries, except for Uzbekistan, had been members of the Shanghai Five, founded in 1996; after the inclusion of Uzbekistan in 2001, the members renamed the organization.

· On 10 July 2015, the SCO decided to admit India and Pakistan as full members.

· India and Pakistan signed the memorandum of obligations on 24 June 2016 at Tashkent, thereby starting the formal process of joining the SCO as full members.

· The official working languages of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization are Chinese and Russian.

Member States:

Date	Country	Enlargement
26 April 1996	China Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Russia Tajikistan	Founders
15 June 2001	Uzbekistan	First Enlargement
8 June 2017	India Pakistan	Second Enlargement