SCO chief comments on progress in Belarus' and Iran's accession to SCO

SCO Secretary General Zhang Ming commented on the progress in Belarus and Iran's accession to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization as he visited the Great Stone Industrial Park, BelTA has learned.

"I completed my visit to Iran and arrived in Belarus. Both countries have had the observer status in our organization for many years. All these years they have been actively involved in all events related to the activities of the SCO. They applied for full membership in the organization. These applications were actively supported by the heads of the SCO member states," Zhang Ming said.

According to him, the procedure for Iran's accession to the SCO was okayed in Dushanbe in 2021, and Belarus got the green-light in Samarkand in 2022. “At the moment, the two countries, the member states and the SCO secretariat,are doing everything in their power and are working closely together to advance this process. In particular, this concerns the legal formalization of certain procedures both within the organization and in these states. Things are moving along nicely," he stressed.