India and Pakistan to officially join Shanghai Cooperation Organization

India and Pakistan will be officially accepted as members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) during a meeting to be attended by President Xi Jinping in Astana, Kazakhstan, later this week, a senior diplomat said on Monday.

The two countries will go through procedures in line with SCO rules to become members during the 17th Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the SCO, Assistant Foreign Minister Li Huilai said at a news conference.

Their accession to the SCO will increase the organization's global impact and representativeness, Li said, adding that the cooperation potential and scope of the organization will be increased.

After accepting India and Pakistan, the SCO will expand its geographical coverage to South Asia and become one of the biggest regional organizations, accounting for three-fifths of the area of the Eurasia continent and half of the world's population, he added.

At the invitation of Kazak President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Xi will make a state visit to the country during which he will attend the SCO meeting.

The SCO launched accession procedures for India and Pakistan in July 2015 at the Ufa summit in Russia. In the SCO's Tashkent summit in Uzbekistan in June 2016, SCO members signed the Memorandum of India's and Pakistan's Accession to SCO Obligations.