ANKARA

Türkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday flew to Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, to attend a Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit.

Astana is hosting the two-day 24th meeting of the council of heads of state of the SCO from Wednesday.

Erdogan is accompanied by first lady Emine Erdogan, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar, Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek, his chief adviser Akif Cagatay Kilic and other officials.

The SCO was founded in 2001 with Russia, China and Central Asian powers, and later included India, Iran and Pakistan.

It is expected to expand as Belarus, which has an observer status along with Mongolia and Afghanistan, is mulling to join the bloc as a full member. As many as 14 countries including Türkiye have a dialogue partner status.