FM: all SCO members ratified memorandum on Belarus' obligations in the organisation
Belarus is on the finishing line of joining the work of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation – as stated by Vadim Senyuta, the Head of the Department of China and Asia-Pacific Co-operation of the Main Directorate for Asia, Africa and Latin America at Belarus’ Foreign Ministry, at today’s round table discussion – SCO Unifying Potential in Emerging Multipolar World – held at the Embassy of Kazakhstan
According to the diplomat, in early January, the last legal procedures related to Belarus’ obligations to join the international obligations of the SCO were completed. “We have completed this process and informed the Secretariat about it. At the moment, there is good news that all SCO member states have ratified a memorandum of Belarus’ obligations, which opens the door for the further finalisation of the process,” he said.
Mr. Senyuta stressed that Belarus' accession to the SCO is not a conjunctural decision made under the influence of circumstances, but a consistent stage in the implementation of the priorities of Belarus' foreign policy, “We are watching this organisation, we see how its influence and the interest of the international community in it are growing. The Shanghai Co-operation Organisation already unites 26 states, including dialogue partners, and accounts for about a third of the world's GDP, most of Eurasia, and 42 percent of the global population. The total natural gas reserves of the SCO countries are 35 percent of the world's, and 22 percent – of all oil reserves.”
According to the official, more than 70 percent of Belarus' trade turnover is accounted for the SCO members. “Since the establishment of the SCO in 2001, the organisation has gone through a number of stages in its development. It has transformed from a political one, which mainly solves security issues, into a multidisciplinary one with an increasingly active economic component and cultural and humanitarian," he stressed.
The diplomat stated that Belarus considers the SCO as the main international platform for identifying specific mechanisms for developing co-operation in countering the threats of terrorism, extremism, organised crime, and drug trafficking. The country advocates strengthening the economic dimension of the SCO as an important factor in strengthening stability in the Eurasian region.
“We take part in all activities of the organisation: political and diplomatic, trade and economic, cultural and humanitarian. Among the treaties to which Belarus has joined as part of the accession process (there are more than 40 of them), we can mention the Treaty on Good-neighbourliness and Friendly Co-operation signed in 2007, which stipulates that the contracting party does not participate in unions or organisations directed against other contracting parties and does not support actions hostile to other contracting parties. Joining this treaty together with the participation of such important players of the world community as Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Iran and others can be an essential element of a multilateral security guarantee in the broadest sense," Mr. Senyuta said.
