India, Pakistan, Iran not to be included in SCO: Ivanov

Moscow, May 16 (UNI) Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov today said there were no plans to expand the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO) in near future, ruling out the possibility of India, Pakistan and Iran joining the regional security group, as full members.

''There are no plans to fundamentally enlarge the SCO. I do not think the number of SCO members will greatly increase in the foreseeable future,'' Interfax news agency quoted Mr Ivanov as saying at a press conference in Vidyayevo (Murmansk region), while answering a question about the prospects of admitting Iran, India and Pakistan into the organisation.

The meeting of the SCO Foreign Ministers in Beijing yesterday approved a draft agenda of the summit of the SCO leaders scheduled to be held in Shanghai on June 15.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov who participated in the meeting, told reporters today that relations with observer countries in the SCO, will be spelled out during the June summit.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf are likely to attend the summit.

Mr Lavrov said the SCO summit should establish ''the procedures that regulate the participation of observers in summits, foreign ministers' meetings and other ministerial conferences.'' India, Pakistan and Iran joined the group last July as observers.

Pakistan has already expressed its wish to join the other full members of the group, including Russia, China, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan.

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