Belarus became the 10th member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization on Thursday, July 4, when Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev opened the second day of the bloc’s summit in Astana and asked leaders to sign the protocols. “Belarus has completed all the necessary procedures on the way to SCO membership in a short period of time,” he said, according to Anadolu Agency.
The admission was the headline item, but the two days in the Kazakh capital produced a long paperwork trail. Leaders adopted the Astana Declaration and approved 25 documents, The Astana Times reported, covering energy, security, trade, finance and information security.
What the leaders signed
Kazakhstan’s own proposal, “the Initiative On World Unity for a Just Peace, Harmony and Development,” won the endorsement of the members. They also adopted a development strategy running to 2035.
Several of the texts touch daily life across the region. There is a five-year anti-drug strategy with an implementation plan, and a memorandum between the SCO Secretariat and a Central Asian information centre aimed at drug trafficking. Member states agreed on cooperation on drinking water safety and sanitation, on waste management and on environmental protection. Energy cooperation now has a horizon of 2030, as does an economic action plan. A counter-terrorism programme covers 2025-2027.
Once the summit ended, China took over the chairmanship. Qingdao was named the organization’s tourism and cultural capital for 2024-2025.
Who came, who stayed home
Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping opened the summit on July 3. Putin said Russian-Chinese relations “are experiencing their best period in history,” while Xi called him an “old friend,” RFE/RL reported. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met Putin and offered to mediate in the Ukraine conflict; Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that was “not possible.” UN Secretary-General António Guterres also attended.
India sent Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, not Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Atlantic Council fellow Niva Yau told RFE/RL that India’s absence “reduces the SCO’s global profile and limits some of China’s bigger plans.”
The bloc itself dates to 2001, when six countries founded it in Shanghai: Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. India and Pakistan joined in 2017 and Iran in 2023. Belarus had been a dialogue partner since 2010 and an observer since 2015.
Not everyone is convinced the gatherings deliver much. Carnegie analyst Temur Umarov called the SCO “heavy on symbolism but light on substance,” a forum where leaders can meet Xi and Putin without producing lasting organizational results.
Sources
- Belarus joins Shanghai Cooperation Organization as 10th member state (Anadolu Agency)
- SCO Summit Adopts Astana Declaration, Reaches Strategic Agreements (The Astana Times)
- Xi, Putin Kick Off SCO Summit In Kazakhstan With Belarus Set To Join (RFE/RL, Reid Standish)
