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UN secretary-general says will attend SCO summit in Kazakhstan

In Antonio Guterres' opinion, there is a number of situations "in which the regional organizations can solve problems the UN cannot solve"

MOSCOW, June 28. /TASS/. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he would take part in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Astana, Kazakhstan, on July 3-4.

"I am going to the Shanghai Cooperation Council summit in the week after this interview," he said in an interview with TASS First Deputy Director General Mikhail Gusman.

Guterres went on to say that international organizations, such as the SCO, BRICS, the African Union or the Organization of Islamic Cooperation are among essential partners of the United Nations.

In his opinion, there is a number of situations "in which the regional organizations can solve problems the UN cannot solve."

"So they are essential partners for us, [be it] the African Union, [or] the European Union," the UN chief added.

"One of the reforms we've managed to have was exactly to allow the Security Council to mandate peace enforcing and counterterrorism operations done by partners - namely the African Union - but with assessed contributions with the financial support of the UN, because the UN was unable to do it," he said.

Earlier, the press service of the Foreign Ministry of Kazakhstan informed that the Shanghai Cooperation Organization will be held in Astana on July 3-4. It is expected to be attended by SCO Secretary-General Zhang Ming. Besides, heads of several international organizations were invited to attend.

The SCO was founded on June 15, 2001, in Shanghai. Initially the organization included Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, in 2017 they were joined by India and Pakistan. Tehran applied to join in 2008 and became a full-fledged member of the organization in July 2023. Belarus is expected to join the group during the Astana summit.