AKIPRESS.COM - Russian President Vladimir Putin will arrive in Dushanbe on Thursday to take part in a two-day summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

“It is a landmark summit for us as after Dushanbe Russian will take over presidency in the SCO from Tajikistan,” Russian president’s aide Yuri Ushakov told journalists on Wednesday.

On Thursday evening, ahead of the official summit’s programme, the heads of delegations will meet at a gala concert and a dinner. 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 SCO observer countries.

The final document - the Dushanbe declaration - is expected to focus on consolidated approaches of the member states to the SCO development and to acute international issues.

According to Ushakov, at their narrow-format meeting the SCO heads of state will discuss cooperation in the sphere of security and efforts to improve the SCO activities. They will also exchange views on the situation in the region and in the world.

“Traditionally, major attention at a narrow-format meeting will be focused on informal discussion of the situation in Afghanistan,” Ushakov said. “We hope the meeting will yield a consolidated position of the SCO member states, who stand for Afghanistan’s development as an independent, neutral and peaceful states and support the central, coordinating role of the United Nations Organization in efforts on the Afghan settlement and assistance to the Afghan people.”

He also said that Russia planned to come out with an initiative to organize in Russia a SCO top-level conference on Afghanistan and invite SCO member states, observers and partners, as well representatives from other countries and international organizations concerned. The previous such conference was held in Moscow in March 2009.

Another topical international problem to be discussed at the SCO summit will be the Ukrainian crisis. “It is planned to include into the Dushanbe declaration provisions on the Ukrainian developments,” Ushakov noted. “It will be noted that the SCO heads of state stand for the soonest restoration of peace in Ukraine, for continuation of the negotiating process to finally settle the crisis in that country.” The SCO leaders, according to Ushakov, commend the Minsk protocol signed after consultations of the Contact Group on Ukraine.