TEHRAN – President Mahmud Ahmadinejad on Sunday called the Shanghai Cooperation Organization a very important regional and international bloc and said Iran plays a determining role in international developments in its interaction with other countries.

Iran’s participation in the conference at this juncture that the world is “undergoing major changes is very important,” Ahmadinejad told reporters upon his departure for the SCO summit in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.
He expressed hope that the talks in the summit will lead to “useful and expected results for member states, region, and international community.”
The president will hold talks with some summiteers on the sidelines of the conference. “In these meetings bilateral subjects, regional issues and the current situation of world will be reviewed.”
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is an intergovernmental international organization founded in Shanghai on 15 June 2001 by six countries, China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Its member states cover an area of about three fifths of Eurasia, with a population of 1.455 billion. Its working languages are Chinese and Russian.
Ahmadinejad called the SCO a very important regional pact which is speedily finding its place in the region and the world.
“The domain of the cooperation between these countries in economic, political fields is expanding,” the Iranian president explained.
The conference will start on Thursday and last until Thursday. It will be attended by the presidents of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan as its permanent members; the presidents of Iran and Mongolia, India’s prime minister, and Pakistan’s foreign minister as observers, and the leaders of Turkmenistan and Afghanistan as guests.
-----------Iran-Afghanistan-Tajikistan meeting
Iran, Tajikistan and Afghanistan as three Persian language speaking countries will hold a trilateral meeting on the fringes of the conference in Dushanbe.
The president said, “This trilateral meeting will be a follow-up of the three countries’ previous meetings.”
Ahmadinejad called the meeting very significant in the light of cultural, historical and religious affinities between the three nations.
The president described the meeting as very effective in developing the Persian language and culture