DUSHANBE, September 11. /ITAR-TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has arrived in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, where the two-day summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) kicks off on Thursday.

Prior to the official meeting of the SCO summit, the Russian leader is scheduled to meet for talks on Thursday with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping and this will be their fourth bilateral meeting starting this year.

Putin and Xi are expected to discuss a set of key international issues, which among others include the controversial Iranian nuclear issue and the current situation on the Korean peninsula.

The Russian and Chinese leaders will be later joined for talks by Mongolian President Tsakhia Elbegdorj and their trilateral meeting will signal the start of the new format of Russia-China-Mongolia negotiations, which are planned to be held on a regular basis in the future.

Following the trilateral meeting, Putin is also scheduled to meet with President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov and then with the leader of the summit’s hosting country, President of Tajikistan Emomali Rakhmon.

Thursday will be rounded up with a concert and a dinner for the SCO summit participants, while the official part of the summit will start the following day.

On Friday, September 12, the Council of the Heads of State will meet first in a narrow format and later in an extended format, involving representatives from the countries, which have the status of observers with the SCO (Afghanistan, India, Iran, Mongolia, and Pakistan).

Turkmenistan’s president and heads of a number of international organizations have been invited to the summit as guests.

The summit is expected to be completed with the final document, the Dushanbe declaration, which is expected to focus on consolidated approaches of the member states to the SCO development and to key international issues.