Xi Jinping did not come to the dinner of the SCO members for fear of contracting covid

This is reported by "Kommersant" with reference to the data of the world media. The trip to Samarkand for the SCO summit was the first foreign visit of the head of China since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Xi Jinping met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. He also attended a trilateral meeting with delegations from Russia, Mongolia and China.

However, the Chinese side refused to participate in the common dinner, citing sanitary restrictions.

This year, the summit participants will have to accept a record number of applications for membership in the SCO. It is expected that during the meeting a memorandum on Iran's accession to the SCO will be signed, and Bahrain, Maldives, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Myanmar will receive the status of dialogue partners.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) was founded on June 15, 2001 by the leaders of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. In 2017, India and Pakistan joined the SCO. Belarus also applied to join the organization.