ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Pakistan will be formally admitted to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) as full member next week, the Foreign Office said Thursday.
Terming it a “good news” for Pakistan, Spokesman Nafees Zakaria at a weekly press briefing here said the membership would be announced at the SCO summit to be held on June 23-24 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
The process of granting Pakistan the full membership of SCO started in July 2015 during Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s visit to Ufa, Russia for a summit.
The SCO was founded in Shanghai on June 15, 2001 by six countries including China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Afghanistan, India, Iran, Mongolia and Pakistan have been accorded observer status.
The SCO is an important and effective multilateral forum that discusses actual problems of international policy, economy, regional stability and security.