16 Dec 2011 16:45

Russia vows to help India join Shanghai Cooperation Organization

MOSCOW. Dec 16 (Interfax) - Russia has promised to help India join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

"Russia has announced that, just as the other member states of the SCO, it stands for measures to be taken to speed up the process of India's accession to this organization as a full member," Russia and India said in a joint statement after a bilateral summit in Moscow.

Russia believes that India's membership in the SCO "will considerably strengthen the political weight of the organization and impart a new quality and dimension to cooperation in the SCO format."

In the same statement, the two countries promised to "step up their interaction in the hydrocarbon sphere."