Azerbaijan to soon become full SCO member, says organisation's chief

Azerbaijan is demonstrating active engagement within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), said SCO Secretary-General Nurlan Yermekbayev.

He expressed hope that Azerbaijan would soon become a full member of the organisation, Caliber.Az reports via local media.

“The SCO is an organisation open to all countries. We admit into our ranks states that wish to comprehensively participate in our activities. The decision to include new countries in the organisation is made by consensus of all member states.

At present, all such applications are under review. I am the head of the organisation’s executive body, and of course, my task is to confirm the decisions of the member states. I hope that in the near future Azerbaijan will obtain membership status, and the country’s cooperation with the SCO will expand,” the Secretary-General emphasised.

For the record, India vetoed Azerbaijan’s membership bid at the summit held on August 31 in the Chinese city of Tianjin. In response, Pakistan took a similar step regarding Armenia.

The SCO, which unites several of the world’s largest countries by both territory and population, was established in 2001 in Shanghai by Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. The organization currently includes 10 members (Kazakhstan, China, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, India, Iran, and Belarus), several observers (Afghanistan, Mongolia, Belarus), and dialogue partners (Azerbaijan, Türkiye, UAE, Bahrain, Armenia, Egypt, Cambodia, Qatar, Kuwait, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka).

By Khagan Isayev