Ahead of his departure to Astana, Kazakhstan, on Thursday to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said full membership of the SCO will help India in terms of connectivity and economic and counter-terror cooperation with the Eurasian bloc.Stating that once India becomes a full member of the SCO, the bloc "will represent over 40 per cent of humanity and nearly 20 per cent of global GDP", Modi said in a pre-departure statement: "We launched the process of full membership in Tashkent meeting of the SCO last year. I look forward to deepening India's association with the SCO which will help us in economic, connectivity and counter-terrorism cooperation, among other things."
He said that India has long-standing relations with SCO members and he looked forward to "progressing them further through the SCO for mutual betterment and growth of our countries and our people"."Together, we will harvest new opportunities for beneficial engagement and redouble efforts to address common challenges that may come in the way of realizing our full potential," the Prime Minister said.With Pakistan also expected to be granted full membership at the Astana Summit, the two South Asian neighbours are going to be the seventh and eighth members of the SCO after China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.After participating in the Summit on Friday, Modi will also attend the World Exposition, which Kazakhstan is hosting this year, before returning to India.