Mezentsev opines on SCO's alignment with bilateral relations between Beijing, Minsk, Moscow

“The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is not at odds with the intricate system of relations between Belarus and the People's Republic of China, or between Russia and China, as well as between Minsk and Moscow within the framework of our bilateral relations,” said Dmitry Mezentsev.

He recalled that Russia and China are among the founding members of the SCO. “Countries can be engaged with this international organization in one of three statuses: member states, observer states or dialogue partners. Belarus joined the organization as a dialogue partner. Its status was upgraded to an observer state during the SCO summit in Ufa in 2015. Now active work is underway to fast-track Belarus' accession to the organization as a full member state. The efforts are supervised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and, above all, President Aleksandr Lukashenko,” the state secretary of the Union State remarked.

“If you look at the map, you will see that Belarus is actually located on the western border of the SCO common space. Therefore, Belarus plays a role in addressing common problems of ensuring regional security, expanding the economic cooperation with all countries of the Shanghai family. Of course, the third global component of cooperation in this organization is culture and humanitarian contacts. Belarus has been a paragon of the work of an observer country within the entire Shanghai family,” Dmitry Mezentsev noted.

“I am convinced that the work to get Belarus the status of a full member of the SCO will bear fruit. I think that the decision will be taken next year,” he added.