BEIJING: China’s President Xi Jinping will attend and deliver a speech at a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) via video link on July 4, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Friday.

India, as the chair nation of this year’s summit of the SCO Council of Heads of State, announced in May that it would hold the event in a virtual format.

Defence and foreign ministers of the bloc attended in-person meetings in India this year.

The SCO is a political and security union of countries spanning much of Eurasia, including China, India and Russia.

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Formed in 2001 by Russia, China and former Soviet states in Central Asia, the body has been expanded to include India and Pakistan, with a view to playing a bigger role as counterweight to Western influence in the region.

Kazakhstan will take over the presidency of the SCO after the July summit.