Belarusian entry to SCO to be formalized at Astana summit on July 4 - Kazakh ambassador

MINSK. April 3 (Interfax) - Belarus's full membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is due to be formalized at the Astana summit on July 4, Kazakh Ambassador in Minsk Yerlan Baizhanov said.

"Six dialogue partners joined the organization in 2022, and four of them are Arab countries (the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Bahrain and Kuwait). Iran became a full SCO member in 2023. We are expecting Belarus's full membership in the organization to be formalized at the SCO summit in Astana on July 4," Baizhanov said at an expert roundtable on the Unifying potential of the SCO in the emerging multi-polar world order, as quoted by the Belarusian state-run news agency BelTA.

"Mongolia is preparing to join the SCO," he added.

As of now, the SCO has nine members, namely, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.