Aleinik: it’s very important to be involved in strengthening multipolarity from the SCO standpoint

Belarus adheres to the accelerated format of joining the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO), with technical aspects currently being co-ordinated. At the same time, our country sees prospects for co-operation in all SCO formats, including political and diplomatic liaisons – as Belarus’ Foreign Minister Sergei Aleinik told journalists, commenting on the results of the meeting between President of Belarus Aleksandr Lukashenko and SCO Secretary General Zhang Ming.

The Head of the Foreign Ministry stressed that Belarus attaches great importance to collaboration with the SCO, and the history of relations dates back to 2010, when our country began interacting with the organisation as a dialogue partner. In 2015, the status was upgraded to an observer, and already last year an official application was submitted to join the SCO as a full member.

“This application was considered on an expedited basis and approved at the political level at the summit in Samarkand in September 2022. After that, we were actively involved in the process of legal registration of our full membership. Many rounds and consultations were held with the SCO member states and SCO Secretariat,” added Sergei Aleinik.

On January 17th, 2023, a protocol was signed on the accession of Belarus to the SCO, determining the mechanisms for accession, and a draft memorandum on Belarus’ obligations to obtain SCO member status was prepared. On February 9th, the President of Belarus signed a decree authorising the Foreign Ministry to sign this memorandum.

Sergei Aleinik explained that at the moment the document is being co-ordinated with all SCO member states, “The process is proceeding normally. Naturally, we adhere to the accelerated accession format. There are technical issues that we are adjusting with member states, we expect to complete this process in 2023.”

The Foreign Minister focused on the fact that Belarus has always actively shown itself in the SCO across all dimensions of the organisation’s work: political and diplomatic, trade and economic, cultural and humanitarian, “We see great prospects and potential for this co-operation, we expect to actively participate in all dimensions, not only in trade, but also in industrial interaction. Now industry and energy issues are on the agenda of the organisation, there is interbank co-operation, alternative settlement options are being formed, which are very are important for overcoming illegal restrictive measures that are applied by Western countries. There is a lot of work in the field of transport and building transit and logistics chains.”

Sergei Aleinik underlined that full membership will open the door to the SCO for our country more widely, enabling us to fully participate in all formats of the organisation without exception, “We see serious prospects in this not only for economic liaisons, but also for political and diplomatic co-operation. This is very important today, because the SCO is one of the main pillars of the multipolar world. It is very important to be involved in the processes of strengthening multipolarity from the SCO standpoint. The same applies to the cultural and humanitarian dimension.”