Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde would represent India at the meeting of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, SCO, to be held at St. Petersburg next week.

SCO, which was founded in 2001 at Shanghai and has six full members, is aimed at strengthening mutual trust and good-neighbourliness and friendship among member states.

An official statement said Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh has nominated Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde to represent India at the meeting on Monday.

The meeting is to be hosted by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin of Russia and will be attended by Prime Ministers of the member states of the SCO, Wen Jiabao of China, Oqil Oqilov of Tajikistan, Shavkat Mirziyoyev of Uzbekistan, Omurbek Babanov of Kyrgyz Republic and Karim Massimov of Kazakhstan.

India, Pakistan, Iran and Mongolia are observer states while Afghanistan is a special invitee at the forum.

Its purpose is to develop effective cooperation in political affairs, economy and trade, energy, transportation, environmental protection and other fields.