Countries seeking to join SCO should ‘prove readiness’ - Russian diplomat

MOSCOW, May 29. /TASS/. Moscow expects that the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Russia’s Ufa on July 9-10 will decide on accession procedures for new member-states, namely India and Pakistan, Russia’s presidential envoy to the SCO told TASS on Friday. "Everyone is waiting for the most important decisions on whether the SCO expansion will begin or not," said Bakhtier Khakimov, who is also the director of the Foreign Ministry’s department for Asia and Pacific cooperation. "We are highly likely to reach certain decisions related to launching the procedures on the accession of India and Pakistan," he said, adding: "We have received the promising signals from our partners in recent days." The diplomat said Russia has broader proposals. "This also concerns 12 applications of states that plan to get this or that status in the organization," Khakimov said. "We will move step-by-step and other possibilities of expansion are being studied," he said. "No one will get the status indiscriminately. The countries seeking to join the organization should prove their readiness in practice," the diplomat stressed. Speaking on the candidates, he said Armenia and Azerbaijan were also being considered. "Iran is seeking a full-fledged membership, Belarus plans to receive an observer status, and there have been applications from Nepal, Cambodia, and Syria and Egypt have recently applied," he said, adding: "Everyone is interested in the SCO." Currently, members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization are Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Mongolia, India, Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan enjoy the observer status. Belarus, Sri Lanka and Turkey have a status of a dialogue partner. Read more