The intention to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), has been stated by representatives of ten nations, including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as well as Nepal, Cambodia and some other countries. Izvestiya reported this, citing “two high-ranking knowledgeable sources close to the SCO organizing committee.”
Representatives of the State Duma (Russia’s lower house of parliament) have partially confirmed the information of the sources and also clarified that Armenia and Azerbaijan can obtain the status of a member nation of the Organization in the near future.
“There is a queue of those who want to join the SCO,” top Russian diplomat Sergey Lavrov said commenting on the Organization’s successes during the recent SCO foreign ministers’ meeting in Uzbekistan’s capital, Tashkent.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has stated after the SCO foreign ministers’ meeting in Tashkent that memoranda on giving a dialogue partner status to Egypt, Qatar and Saudi Arabia are planned to be signed at the SCO summit in Samarkand.
Besides, the summit will also adopt a decision on beginning the procedure of admitting Belarus to the SCO and giving a dialogue partner status to Bahrain and Maldives, according to Izvestiya.
A high-ranking knowledgeable source told Izvestiya that "a major wave of expansion awaits the SCO in the near future to include the Arab countries and Southeast Asia nations.” “At the same time, the Emirates, for example, asked to immediately accept them as full members of the Organization,” the source noted.
According to him, Uzbek authorities plan to invite most of those candidates to the summit in Samarkand. “But of course, it will not be possible to gather all of them at once,” the source added.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization was founded at a Summit in Shanghai in 2001 by the presidents of Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. It was preceded by the Shanghai Five mechanism.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization currently has eight full members — China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, India, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
Besides, Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia are four observer states.
It is to be noted that the Islamic Republic of Iran came one step closer to becoming a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) on September 17 last year with the approval of its bid, 15 years after it first applied. On September 17, 2021, the SCO launched the procedures of Iran's accession to the SCO, which are expected to take "a fair amount of time".
SCO’s dialogue partners include Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Turkiye. ACEAN, CIS, Turkmenistan and the United Nations are guest attendances.
Initially focused on regional security, including border conflicts, terrorism and militant Islam, its activities have expanded to cover economics and trade, transport and law enforcement. Security and economic cooperation remain priorities. China and Russia are the dominant members. Russia regards Central Asia as its sphere of influence but Chinese economic sway is growing. At an informal level, the SCO is a diplomatic platform that helps address and contain potential friction.
