ASTANA, June 8. /TASS/. India’s accession to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) will enhance the organization’s capacities, Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev said at a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Kazakh capital of Astana.
According to the Kazakh presidential press service, Nazarbayev pointed out that "India’s SCO membership process was launched 12 years ago, and tomorrow India will become the organization’s full-fledged member." "Having such powerful country in our ranks will allow us to broaden the range of issues that we are capable of solving," the Kazakh leader added.
Nazarbayev pointed out that Kazakhstan and India had a huge cooperation potential in various economic spheres that had not been fully employed yet.
The Indian prime minister, in turn, thanked the Kazakh president for a warm welcome. "When I first visited Kazakhstan in 2015, I was very much impressed by your view of Astana’s development and the progress that Kazakhstan’s economy had made," Modi said.
On Thursday, a two-day SCO summit begins in Astana, the accession of India and Pakistan will top the agenda. Besides, participants will also approve a Convention on countering terrorism.