Shanghai Cooperation Organisation poised for major expansion; Nepal, Maldives to join from subcontinent

New Delhi: The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation is poised for a major expansion five years after India and Pakistan became its full members in 2017.

Iran will get full member status, becoming the ninth member of SCO and the process has also started for giving Belarus’s full membership. Afghanistan and Mongolia are also pushing for an upgrade from Observer status to full membership.

None of the other countries on the list will get full member status, they are poised to get observer status and dialogue partner status, Uzbek Foreign Minister Abdul Aziz Kamilov said on the sidelines of the ongoing SCO Foreign Ministers Ministerial in Samarkand.

Egypt, Qatar and Saudi Arabia will sign pacts to get dialogue partner status and the process of giving Bahrain and Maldives the same status will begin at the Samarkand SCO Summit to be held in September, Kamilov added. Azerbaijan, Armenia, Cambodia and Nepal will get Observer status.