ISLAMABAD, Oct 23: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz will make a short trip to Russia this week to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s (SCO) Summit for heads of the governments.

The one-day event is scheduled to be held in Moscow on Wednesday.

The prime minister will leave for Moscow early Wednesday morning and return the following day, it is learnt. This will be his first visit to Russia as prime minister.

However, given the crisis situation at home after the earthquake the prime minister has decided cut short his visit and also dropped plans of visiting other countries on this trip. The initial plan included visits to Beirut, Damascus and Jordan.

Pakistan will be attending the Summit of the six-member key regional security grouping as an observer. Mr Aziz will also make a statement there.

Pakistan, India and Iran were all granted the observer status by the SCO in June this year, bringing the total number of observers to four. Mongolia was approved as an observer nation last year.

According to senior foreign ministry officials from Pakistan’s perspective its participation in the forthcoming SCO summit is particularly important as it would help greatly in its march towards full membership of this regional organisation.

On the sidelines of the Summit Mr Aziz will hold bilateral meetings with Russian president, Chinese premier and leaders of the Central Asian countries, sources said.