The participants likely will initiate some economic cooperation projects at the upcoming SCO meeting in Yekaterinburg, Russia, slated for June 15-16, said Alexander Lukin, director of the Center for East Asia and SCO Studies at Moscow State University for International Relations.

Lukin said he had high hopes for the prospects of energy cooperation within the SCO framework, noting that there are major energy exporters, energy consumers and transit countries in the group.

The security situation in Afghanistan will be another pressing topic for the SCO, Lukin said.

The SCO, a regional organization founded in 2001 in Shanghai, includes China, Russia and the four Central Asian nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.