Asia

Home page

Asia

Ahmadinejad, Hu meet in Astana

14 June 2011 19:43 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The Iranian and Chinese presidents have met on the sidelines of the 10th Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Kazakhstan, APA reports quoting Press TV.

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao sat down for talks on Tuesday where they discussed the further promotion of Tehran-Beijing relations as well as key regional and international questions.

President Ahmadinejad arrived in the Kazakh capital of Astana early on Tuesday and was received by the Kazakh premier as well as Iran’s ambassador to the country.

The Iranian president then met with his Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev.

President Ahmadinejad is slated to sit down with his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari later Tuesday.

President Ahmadinejad is to meet Iranian expatriates in Kazakhstan and attend an official dinner banquet during his two-day stay.

The SCO summit opens in Astana on Wednesday.

The organization, which groups China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, is an intergovernmental security organization founded in 2001 by leaders of the six nations.

Iran, Pakistan, India and Mongolia have observer seats at the SCO.

Afghanistan also takes part in some SCO summits as a guest member.

Iran’s bid for full membership in the SCO comes as it would allow the country to join and create a powerful coalition with China and Russia.

Political analysts consider the SCO as a potential future counterweight to NATO’s growing influence in Eurasia.