Turkey wants to become full member of SCO

Baku, Azerbaijan, July 31 By Rufiz Hafizoglu – Trend: Turkey intends to become a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), said the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a visit to China, Kanal7 reported July 31. He said that after India and Pakistan decided to join the SCO, this structure has got a special importance for Turkey. The heads of the SCO member states, during a meeting July 9-10 in Ufa, Russia, signed documents providing Azerbaijan with the status of the SCO dialogue partner. For the first time in the SCO’s 15-year history, during the summit of the heads of state in Russia’s Ufa, it was decided to increase the number of its participants. Documents were signed to start a procedure for accession of India and Pakistan, and Belarus got its status upgraded to that of the observer. The SCO includes Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Afghanistan, India, Iran, Mongolia and Pakistan are the SCO observer states. Sri Lanka and Turkey also have the dialogue partner status. Edited by SI --- Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu Follow us on Twitter @TRENDNewsAgency