Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has announced that the country applied to join the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO).
“We have applied for membership in the SCO. This is in line with our balanced foreign policy,” Pashinyan said at a press conference on Wednesday. He recalled that Armenia has observer status in the SCO.
“But now substantive and structural changes are being discussed in the organisation, and observer status may be abolished, which is also one of the reasons for our decision. But we are continuing our balanced foreign policy,” the Armenian prime minister said.
On July 3, the Armenian Foreign Ministry announced that Yerevan wishes to become a member of the SCO.
“Sharing the fundamental principles of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation, namely territorial integrity, non-use of force and inviolability of borders, the Republic of Armenia has expressed its desire to become a member of the SCO,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Later, Viktor Vodolatsky, first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Commonwealth of Independent States Affairs (CIS), Eurasian Integration and Relations with Compatriots, said he welcomed Armenia’s decision and expressed hope that there would be no more anti-Russian actions within the republic.
The Shanghai Co-operation Organisation was founded on June 15, 2001. Currently, the SCO has 10 member states: Belarus, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
