UN secretary-general invited to SCO summit in Kazakhstan

ASTANA. Feb 27 (Interfax) - Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has invited United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to attend a Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in July.

Kazakh Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Murat Nurtleu handed the invitation to Guterres at a meeting in Geneva, the Kazakh Foreign Ministry's press service said on Tuesday.

"Present-day global challenges, ways to deepen regional cooperation between Central Asian countries and the initiative to establish the UN Regional Sustainable Development Goals Center for Central Asia and Afghanistan in Almaty were discussed at the meeting with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. The minister gave the UN secretary-general Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev's invitation to the SCO summit due to take place in Kazakhstan in July of this year," the press service said.

Guterres, in turn, "thanked for the invitation and highly assessed Kazakhstan's efforts in promoting sustainable development and strengthening peace and security worldwide, including within regional organizations such as the SCO and the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia," it said.

The SCO includes India, Iran, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Afghanistan, Belarus and Mongolia hold observer status.