Saudi King Approves Riyadh's Dialogue Partner Status In SCO

Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud has given a final approval to the memorandum conferring the status of a dialogue partner on the kingdom at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), following a document signed in September 2022 at the SCO summit in Uzbekistan's Samarkand, the state-run Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported on Wednesday

DOHA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 29th March, 2023) Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud has given a final approval to the memorandum conferring the status of a dialogue partner on the kingdom at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), following a document signed in September 2022 at the SCO summit in Uzbekistan's Samarkand, the state-run Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported on Wednesday.

The report said that the decision was made during a ministerial meeting chaired by the king in Jeddah.

Egypt and Qatar also received dialogue partner status after the Samarkand summit, and the process of granting such status to Bahrain, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Myanmar and the Maldives was initiated.

In September 2022, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, noted the growing role of the SCO in international affairs and expressed the kingdom's readiness to actively participate in the organization's activities.

The SCO is an international organization founded by China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Russia and Uzbekistan in 2001. In 2017, India and Pakistan were admitted to the organization. SCO observer countries include Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia, while the partner countries are Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Turkey.