SCO further expands as Belarus becomes 10th member

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) has further widened its reach after officially admitting Belarus as an official member on Thursday, when an annual summit was held in Astana.

The SCO has become one of the most authoritative international organizations, and given the uniqueness and enormous potential of the SCO, interest from other countries in joining the organization is steadily growing, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said during the summit.

Belarus became a dialogue partner of the SCO in 2010, an observer state in 2015, and submitted its application for full membership in July 2022. In September that year, the procedural document to initiate the process of admitting Belarus as a member state was signed during the group's 22nd annual summit. A few months later, Lukashenko signed a presidential decree ratifying the draft memorandum on Belarus' obligations as a member state of the SCO.

Analysts say as a European country, Belarus' official accession has expanded the organization's geographical reach and enhanced its development potential and influence.

Based on Belarus' geographical location, transportation infrastructure, and other factors, its cooperation with other SCO members in economy and trade will help elevate the overall level of mutually beneficial cooperation, Vladimir Yevseyev, head of the Eurasian Integration and SCO Development Department of the CIS Countries Institute, told Russian state media outlet TASS.

The SCO, founded in 2001 with six original members, expanded to include India and Pakistan in 2017 and Iran in 2023. Widely regarded as an important regional hub for security and energy cooperation, the group is primed to admit more countries to further consolidate its global standing.

Iran's accession last year has added momentum to the SCO's expansion. Located at the strategic crossroads of Asia, Europe and the Middle East, Iran stands to benefit significantly from SCO efforts to develop transportation infrastructure, simplify customs procedures and promote regional connectivity, Iran's Ambassador to China Mohsen Bahtiyar said at the time.

As a major energy producer and exporter with massive oil and natural gas reserves, Iran can also develop energy infrastructure, promote energy trade and enhance energy security in the region, Bahtiyar said.

With its current 10 members, the SCO is the world's largest regional organization in terms of territorial expanse and population, covering over 40 percent of the world population. As of 2023, its combined GDP accounted for over a quarter of the global GDP, while the establishment of a legal framework as well as various cooperation mechanisms has boosted economic integration among the member states.

However, the SCO's appeal lies not only in the economic potential it can offer but also in its openness to applicants and its promotion of new areas such as humanitarian cooperation. Since 2021, the organization has established the practice of naming each calendar year in order to identify a key thematic area of cooperation, with last year declared the Year of Tourism, and 2024, the Year of Ecology.

Over the past three years, the number of SCO dialogue partners alone has almost doubled, which testifies to the attractiveness of the organization and the universality of its goals and principles, Zhang Ming, secretary-general of the SCO, said in a recent interview with TASS.

"I would like to note that for us the expansion of the SCO is not an end in itself, but a natural process of its development," Zhang said. "Today the 'basket' of applications from interested countries to join the SCO in one or another capacity is not empty, but it is too early to disclose the names of applicants."