BEIJING: Foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) will meet in Beijing next Tuesday to prepare for the SCO summit, which will be held in east China’s Qingdao City in June. Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi will host the meeting of the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers. In addition to foreign ministers from India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, SCO Secretary General Rashid Alimov and director of the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) Executive Committee Yevgeniy Sysoyev will also attend the meeting. “They will exchange opinions on SCO cooperation in various fields as well as major international and regional issues,” foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said Wednesday at a daily press briefing. This meeting of the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers is the first since the organization’s membership expanded last June to include India and Pakistan, according to Hua. “We hope that all sides can take this meeting as an opportunity to build consensus and roll out more cooperation measures to ensure the success of the summit and better development of the SCO,” Hua said. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Kazakh Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov, Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Erlan Abdyldaev and Pakistani Foreign Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif will also pay a visit to China. Lavrov’s official visit to China, from next Monday to Tuesday, demonstrates the high level and distinctiveness of China-Russia ties, as his Chinese counterpart just wrapped up a visit to Russia in early April, Hua said. “The two sides will exchange opinions on recent high-level visits, as well as international and regional issues of common concern,” she said. Published in Daily Times, April 19th 2018.