Dushanbe, 14.03.2016. (NIAT “Khovar”). —Azerbaijan signed on Monday a memorandum on granting it the status of dialogue partner in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

The document was inked by SCO Secretary-General Rashid Alimov and Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov in Beijing, RIA Novosti reported.

«Today, Azerbaijan has gained, exactly approved the status of a dialogue partner. It is a great honor for us. The path of our relationship started back in 2012, when President Ilham Aliyev sent an official letter to the SCO with the idea of Azerbaijan to gain an observer status of the SCO. So, as you know, Azerbaijan has much higher ambitions than just a dialogue partner… I think that today’s document, signed here, gives us an opportunity to start a dialogue with such a very important, very interesting organization,» Mammadyarov said.

Alimov, in turn, said the SCO considers the signing of the Memorandum «as an important contribution to the further development of the organization.»

«A dialogue partner status will allow Azerbaijan to actively involve in the multi-faceted and diverse activities of the organization through participation in existing mechanisms of interaction,» he noted.

A decision on providing Azerbaijan with the status of SCO dialogue partner was taken at the Ufa summit in July 2015.

The heads of the SCO member states signed documents providing Azerbaijan with the status of SCO dialogue partner at an expanded meeting of SCO Council of Heads of State held in Ufa, Russia on July 10.

The SCO is a permanent intergovernmental organization founded on June 15, 2001. The members of the organization are Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, while Belarus, Mongolia, India, Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan enjoy observer status.