BEIJING, May 16 (RIA Novosti) - Relations with observer countries in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization will be spelled out during a June summit of the regional security organization, Russia's foreign minister said Tuesday.
Iran, one of four observers, said Monday that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wanted to attend the June 15 summit in Shanghai and Sergei Lavrov said the meeting should clarify the status of those nations that are not full members.
Lavrov said the meeting, the sixth of its kind, should establish "the procedures that regulate the participation of observers in summits, foreign ministers' meetings and other ministerial conferences."
The minister, currently in China to meet with his SCO counterparts to approve the summit agenda, said these procedures should be democratic and tested to determine the format that suited best the observer nations - which also include India, Pakistan and Mongolia - to ensure flexibility and the smooth development of relations.
Pakistan has already stated that it wants to join the other full members of the group - Russia, China, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan - and President Pervez Musharraf has been officially invited to attend the Shanghai meeting.
But with the crisis over Iran's controversial nuclear programs escalating, Lavrov ruled out putting the issue on the summit agenda.
"I do not link the Iranian president's intention to attend the SCO summit with efforts being made to solve the Iranian nuclear issue," Lavrov said.
Russia and China, both veto-wielding members of the UN Security Council, are opposed to a draft UN Security Council resolution submitted by the United States, France and the United Kingdom to impose sanctions on Iran, which they suspect of pursuing a covert nuclear-weapons program.
