YEREVAN, July 16. /TASS/. Armenia has requested to become a member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), according to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

"True, Armenia has applied to join the SCO. This request is in tune with our agenda of pursuing a balanced foreign policy course," the Armenian head of government said at a press conference in Yerevan. Armenia is an SCO dialogue partner, and the move was "not on a whim," he added.

Armenia would like to maintain partnership relations in the north, in the south, in the west, and in the east, Pashinyan explained.

On July 3, the Armenian Foreign Ministry said that Yerevan has expressed desire to become a full-fledged member of the SCO.

Last summer, Mehrdad Kiaei, the National Coordinator of the Islamic Republic of Iran at the SCO Secretariat, announced that Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, and Sri Lanka had applied for the status of an observer country. The Organization is ready to consider and approve these applications, he said.