BEIJING, May 16: China on Tuesday said it would invite the leaders of Iran, Pakistan, India and Mongolia to a Central Asian security summit in Shanghai next month. “According to a consensus of members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation... leaders of observer nations will be invited to attend the summit meeting,” foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told journalists.

“Iran is an observer of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation... we welcome representatives of Iran to attend this meeting.”

China and Russia are the leading members of the organisation, which also includes four former Soviet Central Asian states of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Iran, Pakistan, India and Mongolia are observer nations and there has been increasing speculation that China and Russia may be looking to expand the organisation to give it greater regional clout.—AFP