Belarus was officially accepted as a member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) at the summit in Astana, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said on Thursday.
"Dear heads of state, the decision on the full membership of the Republic of Belarus in the SCO has been made," Tokayev said, congratulating Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on the occasion.
Belarus has completed all the procedures for full participation in the SCO in a short time, Tokayev added.
The enlargement issue is not on the organization's agenda, SCO Secretary General Zhang Ming told the Kazinform news agency earlier in the day, adding that several countries have already submitted membership and partnership applications and that they will be reviewed based on the intention of further improving the organization's performance.
Belarus became the 10th member of the SCO. Since 2015, Belarus has been an SCO observer state, meaning that it could participate in the organization's events but could not vote or work on documents. It also was not a part of the SCO decision-making process and bore no responsibility for the organization's decisions. The process of the country's accession to the SCO was initiated in 2022.
The organization, founded in 2001, also includes India, Iran, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan. Afghanistan and Mongolia are observer states; Azerbaijan, Armenia, Cambodia, Nepal, the UAE, Turkey, Sri Lanka, Kuwait, the Maldives, Myanmar, and Bahrain are partners.
All these countries have turned the SCO into one of the most influential and authoritative structures in the world, Tokayev stated.
"Through joint efforts, strengthening the Shanghai spirit, and promoting the Shanghai principles, we have turned the SCO into one of the most influential and authoritative international structures. Due to the uniqueness and huge potential of our association, interest in it in the world is steadily growing," Tokayev said during a Council of Heads of State of the SCO member states.