SCO Members See Eye to Eye on Admitting Mongolia to Club

All members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) have unequivocally backed the admission of Mongolia as the 11th member of the Eurasian politico-security organisation, according to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Addressing a press conference after the SCO Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs meeting in Astana on Tuesday, Lavrov highlighted that there were two observer countries — Afghanistan and Mongolia — which were in contention to become full members of the association.

"We, along with China and our other partners, believe that the Mongolian side is, clearly, the next candidate to join the SCO," the top Russian diplomat said.

Lavrov noted that geographycally Mongolia fits "seamlessly into the SCO space".

"We will encourage our Mongolian neighbors to make such a decision," he said.

Commenting on Belarus's entry, Lavrov said that it would be admitted as a full-fledged member at the upcoming July summit. He revealed that Belarusian Foreign Minister Sergey Aleinik participated in Tuesday's meeting as a non-permanent member.

Further, Lavrov noted that 14 other countries were official dialogue partners of the Beijing-headquartered grouping.

"Additional applications for this status have been received from Laos and Algeria. So the process is underway," he noted.

The last expansion of the SCO took place at the New Delhi virtual summit in July 2023, when Iran was admitted as a full-fledged member.

Afghanistan and Gaza Crises Top Meeting's Discussion

All members of the grouping were in favour of resuming the activities of the SCO-Afghanistan Contact Group established in 2005, but its activities have remained largely suspended since the Taliban*, "who are de jure not recognised yet", came to power in August 2021, Lavrov said.

"This is a useful mechanism for exchanging assessments on how to continue normalizing the situation around this country, assisting the Afghan authorities in ensuring the inclusiveness of the State-building process, including representatives of all ethnic and political groups," the Russian top diplomat stressed.

He further stated that all the SCO states backed the creation of a "Palestinian state" to ensure everlasting peace and stability in the region.

"We came to a common opinion that without the creation of a Palestinian state (and this issue is now being 'muffled' in every possible way by Israel and the United States, backing it on everything), it is impossible to ensure stability in this region of our Eurasian continent," Lavrov said.

*under UN sanctions

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