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Saudi crown prince tells Putin his country would actively work in SCO

According to the statement, the Saudi crown prince "noted the growing role of the SCO in global affairs, and expressed the Kingdom’s readiness to actively participate in its activities"

MOSCOW, September 23. /TASS/. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will actively participate in the work of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud told Russian President Vladimir Putin during their phone conversation on Thursday.

"The topic of interaction within the Shanghai Cooperation Organization was discussed, in the light of the decision to vest Saudi Arabia with the status of a dialogue partner, made during the recent summit in Samarkand [Uzbekistan]," the Kremlin press service said in a statement.

According to the statement, the Saudi crown prince "noted the growing role of the SCO in global affairs, and expressed the Kingdom’s readiness to actively participate in its activities."

Also, Putin asked the crown prince to convey his congratulations to Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud on the occasion of the Saudi National Day, marked on September 23.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization was established by six states, namely China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan in June 2001. India and Pakistan was granted full-fledged membership in 2017. Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran, and Mongolia are observer countries, and Azerbaijan, Armenia, Cambodia, Nepal, Turkey, and Sri Lanka enjoy the partner status.

The organization’s summit in Uzbekistan’s Samarkand on September 15-16 launched the procedure of admitting Belarus as a full-fledged member. Apart from that, Iran signed a memorandum on liabilities for joining the organization. Egypt and Qatar were granted a dialogue partner status, while Bahrain, Kuwait, the Maldives, Myanmar, and Saudi Arabia began the procedure for obtaining this status.

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