18th SCO Summit starts; President Mamnoon in attendance

QINGDAO (China), Jun 10 (APP):The 18th Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) formally started here Sunday with its plenary session being attended by leaders from all member countries and observers.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is chairing the meeting being held at Qingdao International Conference Center here in the cultural and port city of Shandong province.
At the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping, President Mamnoon Hussain is representing Pakistan in the summit that is the first one being held after the inclusion of the country in the Organization. Previously, Pakistan had been attending the summit only as an observer.
Besides President Mamnoon, the summit is also being attended by the leaders of all eight member countries, including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President of Kazakhstan N. A. Nazarbayev, Chinese President XI Jinping, Kyrgyz President S. Sh. Jeenbekov, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Tajik President E.Rahmon and Uzbek President Sh. M. Mirziyoyev.
Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran, Mongolia and Turkmenistan will also attend the meeting as Observers.
Representatives of the United Nations, Commonwealth of Independent States, Collective Security Treaty Organization, Association of South East Asian Nations, Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia, International Monetary Fund and World Bank are also in attendance.
The session started with the opening remarks of President Xi Jinping that would follow the address of the leaders attending the event including President Mamnoon Hussain.
After conclusion of the session, the leaders would also sign the declaration of the Summit.
Earlier, on their arrival at the venue, Chinese president, also host of the summit received the guests. Later, he also had a group photos with the heads of states of eight permanent member countries and also with the heads of all delegations.