The Membership Issue of Yerevan and Baku is Not Being Delayed, Says Former SCO Secretary-General

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is not delaying the membership issue of Armenia and Azerbaijan; this decision requires consensus. This was stated by Rashid Alimov, the former Secretary-General of the organization, in an interview with TASS.

"The procedure for accepting new member states is clearly defined and has undergone resilience testing on more than one occasion. The decision on acceptance is made by consensus. Throughout the history of the SCO, no application has ever been rejected. Each application is reviewed carefully and meticulously on an individual basis. From the outside, it may seem that the process is being delayed, but that is not the case," Alimov stated.

The former Secretary-General emphasized that the issue is not about the speed of application reviews, but rather that the process is not halted. “Quick decisions are not made in the SCO,” he noted.