MOSCOW, September 13. /TASS/. Five countries may get the status of dialogue partners of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization at the organization’s summit in Uzbekistan, Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov told reporters on Tuesday.
He said the process of registration of Belarus membership in the SCO will begin at the summit in the Uzbek city of Samarkand, and the organization will sign memorandums with Egypt, Qatar and Saudi Arabia designating them as dialogue partners.
"A decision will also be taken to launch a procedure for granting a similar status to Bahrain, Kuwait, the [United] Arab Emirates, Myanmar and Maldives," the aide said.
"There is a huge interest in participating in the SCO in various formats, and the number of states interested in cooperation is growing from year to year, and now we are witnessing a kind of a culmination," he said.