Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev will attend an annual meeting of the security council secretaries of the member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in the capital of India, New Delhi, on Wednesday
NEW DELHI (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th March, 2023) Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev will attend an annual meeting of the security council secretaries of the member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in the capital of India, New Delhi, on Wednesday.
At such meetings, preceding the meeting of the heads of SCO member states, the security situation in the organization is discussed, and the sides exchange views on joint counteraction to challenges and threats.
The SCO was founded in 2001. India, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan are its members.
Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia are observer states; Azerbaijan, Armenia, Cambodia, Nepal, Turkey and Sri Lanka are dialogue partners. At the SCO summit in Samarkand in September 2022, memorandums were signed to grant the dialogue partner status to Egypt and Qatar. Bahrain, the Maldives, Quwait, the United Arab Emirates and Myanmar will also receive the dialogue partner status.
At the Samarkand summit, Iran signed a memorandum of commitment in order to obtain the status of a SCO member state, and on November 27, the national parliament adopted a bill on Iran's entry into the organization. The adoption of the bill on the memorandum of commitment took place on January 25, 2023.
At that summit, it was also decided to start the procedure to admit Belarus to the SCO as a full member.
