The accession process of Minsk and Tehran to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) has been successful so far. SCO Secretary-General Zhang Ming said this on Friday in response to a TASS reporter's question.
"The accession process of Belarus and Iran has been successful so far," he said.
Zhang Ming noted the active participation of Minsk and Tehran in the SCO as observers. "Iran and Belarus' applications for membership have received an active response from SCO member states," he added.
"At the moment, the two countries, the SCO members and the secretariat are doing their best, cooperating closely to advance this process. In particular, this concerns the legal formalization of certain procedures within the SCO and these states. At the moment, everything is successfully moving forward," the secretary-general stressed.
Belarus received SCO observer status in July 2015 at the organization's summit in Ufa. The SCO summit in Samarkand in September 2022 launched a mechanism for Belarus to join the organization as a member state. As a result of the same summit, Iran signed a memorandum of commitment to become an SCO member state. After the country fulfills its obligations, it will complete the formal procedure of accession to the organization.
GSV "Russia - Islamic world"
Photo: Russian Foreign Ministry
Based on materials from TASS