Belarus’ Initiatives in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization

Belarus became a dialogue partner in the Shanghai Coopertaion Organization in 2010 and an observer state in 2015. Following the SCO Heads of State Council meeting in Samarkand (Uzbekistan) on 16 September 2022, a document was signed to launch the process of Belarus' accession to the organization as a full-fledged member. The procedure was completed at the summit in Astana (Kazakhstan), and Belarus became the 10^th full-fledged member of the organization.

In 2016, President of the Republic of Belarus Aleksandr Lukashenko took part in the summit of the SCO Heads of State Council in Tashkent for the first time as the leader of an observer country. The head of state also attended the SCO summits in Astana (2017, 2024), Qingdao (2018), Bishkek (2019), Dushanbe (2021), Samarkand (2022), and New Delhi in the online format (2023).

In his speeches at those summits the President focused on the potential of the organization in the stimulation of the trade and economic cooperation, digital transformation, artificial intelligence, green economy, etc. Belarus is interested in the development of the common transport space in the SCO, international automobile transportation as well as in the coordinated development of road and railway transportation.

Belarus views the Shanghai Cooperation Organization as an important international platform for the development of specific mechanisms of advancing interaction in the prevention of terrorism, extremism, organized crime. Belarus also advocates for strengthening the economic dimension of the SCO as a key factor of stability in the Eurasian region.

The Republic of Belarus takes an active part in all major activities of the SCO: political and diplomatic, trade and economic, cultural and humanitarian.