BEIJING, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Hu Jintao is to attend the eighth annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) slated for Aug. 28 in Dushanbe, Tajikistan's capital.

    The SCO is an inter-governmental organization founded in Shanghai on June 15, 2001, by China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

    Its member states cover an area of more than 30 million square km with a population of about 1.5 billion. Its working languages are Chinese and Russian.

    The SCO originated and grew from the Shanghai Five mechanism, which was founded in 1996 by China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan with the aim of strengthening confidence-building, carrying out disarmament in their border areas and promoting regional cooperation.

    According to its Charter and the declaration on its establishment, the SCO works to strengthen mutual trust and good-neighborliness and friendship among member states, develop effective cooperation in a wide range of areas, work together to maintain regional peace, security and stability and promote the creation of a new international political and economic order which is fair, reasonable and democratic.

    The basic principles of the SCO include adherence to the purposes and principles of the UN Charter; respect for each other's independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, non-interference in each other's internal affairs, mutual non-use or threat of use of force; equality among all member states; settlement of all questions through consultations, non-alignment and not targeting at any other country or organization; openness and willingness to carry out all forms of dialogues, exchanges and cooperation with other countries and relevant international or regional organizations.

    The SCO institutions consist of two parts: the meeting mechanism and the permanent organs. The highest SCO organ is the Council of Heads of State. The permanent institutions include the Secretariat in Beijing and the Regional Anti-Terrorism Structure (RATS) in Tashkent.

    In 2004, the SCO initiated the observers mechanism, and offered the observer status to Mongolia in June. In July 2005, Pakistan, Iran and India became observers of the bloc.