Photo: Chinese President Xi Jinping, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko during the summit of the heads of state of the SCO member states in Astana. July 4, 2024.

Belarus has officially joined the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) as a full member of the organization.

This was announced by the President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev during the summit, which took place on July 3-4 in Astana. According to him, Belarus “in a short period of time completed all the necessary procedures on the way to full membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization,”  reports “Voice of America”.

Kazakhstan is chairing the SCO this year.

Thus, the SCO now includes ten countries. Among them — China, Russia, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Iran, Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

This is not the first expansion of the SCO. Founded in 2001, the organization approved the membership of India and Pakistan in 2017, and six years later Iran was admitted to the SCO.

Belarus has been a dialogue partner of the SCO since 2010, and Minsk has been a member of the organization since 2015 as an observer. At the moment, in fact, the only observer country in the SCO is Mongolia. Formally, Afghanistan has also been an observer since 2012, but the Taliban, which took control of the country in 2021, are not officially recognized by UN member states as the country's legitimate authorities.

Currently, 14 countries are dialogue partners SCO. Among them – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Egypt and the UAE.

Previously, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks at the summit venues. Moscow and Beijing view the SCO platform as a tool to counter the influence of the United States and Western countries.

Prepared by: Sergei Daga