Krishna heading to SCO summit in Tashkent Thursday

New Delhi, (IANS) External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna goes to Tashkent Thursday on a two-day visit to attend the six-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit amid speculation that India may be included as a full-fledged member of the regional grouping.

Krishna will represent India at the June 10-11 summit in Tashkent, the capital city of Uzbekistan.

With counter-terrorism becoming an important focus of the SCO, India feels that its fuller participation in the SCO would enable it to counter the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan and other extremist networks by cooperating closely with other like-minded countries in the region.

The summit is expected to clear the rules and procedures for expanding the membership of the regional grouping that comprises Russia, China and the energy-rich Central Asian republics of Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.

The foreign ministers of SCO countries met last week and finalised procedures for admitting new members.

India, along with Pakistan, Iran and Mongolia, currently has observer status at the SCO.

In the past few months, India has shown its interest in joining the SCO that has emerged as an important regional security organisation with networks of energy supplies.

Last year, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh participated in the SCO summit at Yekaterinburg in Russia as an observer, the first time India was represented at this level at the regional summit.