Afghan President to come to Russia for SCO summit - Hamid Karzai

MOSCOW, June 25. /TASS/. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai will take part in the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Ufa, former president of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai told a news conference on Thursday. "He will soon visit Russia. That will be a meeting within the framework of the SCO," Karzai said. He voiced confidence that Presidents of Russian and Afghanistan Vladimir Putin and Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai "would find time to socialize to improve and deepen relations between our two countries." "This is something we are striving for," Karzai said. He noted that Afghanistan would "seek full-fledged participation in the SCO" and asked the organization’s member-countries to approach the issue in a positive way. Meanwhile, Russian Presidential Envoy for SCO Affairs, Director of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry Bakhtier Khakimov said that Afghanistan had "immediately responded to the invitation", and the president of this country "was one of the first to confirm his participation in the summit." The SCO summit will be held between July 8 and July 10. Read more