MOSCOW. July 3 (Interfax) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has arrived in Kazakhstan on a working visit for a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Council of the Heads of State and a series of bilateral meetings.
On Wednesday, Putin will have bilateral meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh, and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Tokayev will give an informal dinner for the heads of delegations from SCO member states, as well as from Azerbaijan, Qatar, Mongolia, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey on Wednesday evening.
The main program of the SCO summit will take place on Thursday. Members of the SCO Council of the Heads of State will exchange views on current global and regional affairs, and official documents will be signed after the meeting.
Later on Thursday, Putin will meet with acting Iranian President Mohammad Mokhber.
The first meeting in the SCO+ format will take place on Thursday. It will discuss cooperation between SCO member states and guest countries in global and regional affairs.
Apart from the SCO leaders, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh, Qatari Amir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as well as Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah Ruler Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi and Turkmen People's Council Chairman Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, will attend the meeting. Heads of executive bodies of the United Nations, the Collective Security Treaty Organization, the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Eurasian Economic Union, the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development are also expected to take part.
Putin will speak to the Russian press after the summit.