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The SCO Summit scheduled for July 2015 in Ufa (Republic of Bashkortostan) will consider the SCO's expansion, Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov said while delivering a lecture at the Diplomatic Academy.
"We are preparing for the Ufa Summit. This meeting will discuss further intensification and specification of SCO cooperation projects as well as the organisation's expansion. I hope that a political decision on starting the expansion process will be taken in Ufa. We have reached an understanding to this effect with other SCO member states," he said.
According to Mr. Lavrov, the relevant criteria for aspiring members were approved at the 2014 SCO Summit in Dushanbe (Tajikistan). "We will consider applications submitted by a number of states, including India and Pakistan. Iran has also filed an application, and I hope that the progress on the Iranian nuclear programme will help us to consider it," he said.