The 18th Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit will be held in the city of Qingdao in east China's Shandong Province this weekend. With the summit just days away, SCO Secretary General Rashid Alimov sat down with CGTN to discuss the event's significance.

RASHID ALIMOV SCO SECRETARY GENERAL "The SCO Qingdao Summit has historical meaning and will open a new chapter in history. It will develop under the framework of eight member states. Among them, four countries are nuclear powers and the others are signatories of the 'Central Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone treaty'. Two nations are permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, while Kazakhstan is not. All of these countries will jointly maintain stability, peace and security in the region. So, the SCO Qingdao Summit is not only important for the region, but also for the whole world since the SCO has become one of the largest trans-regional organizations."