MOSCOW, July 2. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold a series of bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, Putin’s aide Yury Ushakov said.

According to Ushakov, Moscow considers the summit in Astana as an "opportunity to organize bilateral contacts with the country leaders who will attend it." That is why Putin’s program "includes a range of very important bilateral contacts," he noted.

Thus, Putin’s talks with Presidents Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of Kazakhstan, Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh of Mongolia, Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, and Xi Jinping of China, as well as with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif are scheduled for July 3, a day ahead of protocol events.

On July 4, according to Ushakov, "there will be time to organize several brief bilateral contacts," in particular with acting Iranian President Mohammad Mokhber.

The CSO events will also be attended by delegates from Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Turkmenistan, as well as representatives from international organizations, including United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, CIS Secretary General Sergey Lebedev, Secretary General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Imangali Tasmagambetov, senior officials from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and Islamic Organization for Food Security (IOFS).