The most prominent highlights of this year's summit will be the formal accession of India and Pakistan to the SCO and China's takeover of the bloc's presidency after the meeting, according to Sun Zhuangzhi, secretary-general of the SCO Research Center at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).

The joining of New Delhi and Islamabad, the first ever expansion of the SCO, will make it an eight-member cross-continent regional organization that covers the largest population and widest area in the world.

SCO Secretary-General Rashid Alimov said earlier that the membership of India and Pakistan, both regional heavyweights, will enhance the SCO's role in combating cross-border terrorism and promoting free trade.

"There is no wonder that India and Pakistan want to join in and take a share," said Alexey Maslov, head of the Oriental Studies Department at the Russian Higher School of Economics Research University.

"The SCO's founding principles, featuring mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, respect for cultural diversity and common development, have received wide recognition. In fact, far more countries have expressed readiness to join in than we expected," he added.

Speaking of China's upcoming presidency, Sun said, "All member states pin high hopes on President Xi's statements to enhance the SCO's role and his country's work in this regard in the coming year."

"China has become the first or second largest trading partner of most SCO members, and offered key proposals to set the legal and operational basis of the SCO. All such efforts have made the bloc more influential in regional political, economic, cultural and security arrangements," he added.

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