MOSCOW, August 23. /TASS/. Moscow expects that India and Pakistan will join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Convention on Combating Extremism, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev said.

The previously unreleased fragments of his address to a meeting of security council secretaries from SCO member states, which took place in Uzbekistan's capital of Tashkent on August 19, were published in the Argumenty i Fakty newspaper on Tuesday. The Security Council confirmed the authenticity of the quotations to TASS.

According to the Security Council secretary, Russia is ready to embark on counterterrorism cooperation with other SCO nations. "We welcome the successful implementation of the 2022-2024 cooperation program related to the fight against terrorism, separatism and extremism, as well as the 2017 SCO Convention on Combating Extremism. We hope that India and Pakistan will join the document," Patrushev noted.