The 24th meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) held in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, officially accepted the Republic of Belarus as a member state. At the beginning of the meeting that day, Kazakh President Tokayev said in his speech that the SCO has become "one of the most authoritative international organizations" and that other countries are "steadily growing" in view of the uniqueness and great potential of the SCO.
Tokayev said that Belarus "completed all necessary procedures for joining the SCO in a short period of time" and proposed that representatives of SCO member states sign documents on accepting Belarus as a member state. Representatives of member states then signed relevant documents. Belarus became the 10th member state of the SCO. The SCO was established in Shanghai on June 15, 2001. The founding members are China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The 2017 SCO Astana Summit decided to grant India and Pakistan member state status. In July 2023, the 23rd meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the SCO member states officially accepted Iran as a member state.Currently, the SCO has 10 formal member states including Belarus, 2 observer states and 14 dialogue partners.
