The External Affairs Minister Mr. S. M. Krishna has left for Tashkent on Thursday afternoon on a two-day visit. He will attend the six-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, amid speculation that India may be included as a full-fledged member of the regional grouping. <br/><br/>AIR correspondent reports with counter-terrorism an important focus of the SCO, India feels that its fuller participation in organisation will enable New Delhi to counter the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan and other extremist networks by cooperating closely with other like-minded countries in the region.<br/><br/>The summit is expected to clear the rules and procedures for expanding the membership of the regional grouping that comprises Russia, China and the energy-rich Central Asian republics of Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. <br/><br/>The foreign ministers of SCO countries met last week and finalised procedures for admitting new members. Last year, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh participated in the SCO summit at Yekaterinburg in Russia as an observer, the first time India was represented at this level at the regional summit.