Participants in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, taking place in Tianjin, have decided to merge the statuses of "observer" and "dialogue partner" into a single status of "SCO partner." This is stated in the declaration adopted during the summit, RIA writes.
"The member states have decided to combine the statuses of “observer” and “dialogue partner” into a single status of “SCO partner”," the document states.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization was founded in 2001. Currently, the full members of the organization are Belarus, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Before the new decision, Afghanistan and Mongolia had observer status. Dialogue partners were Azerbaijan, Armenia, Bahrain, Egypt, Cambodia, Qatar, Kuwait, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Sri Lanka.
