Turkey’s desire to become a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is irritating, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in New York following talks with Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“We believe it is not an organisation that in any way makes a very important contribution to good relations in the world. That is why I am very annoyed by the movement in this direction and the discussions,” he said on the margins of the UN General Assembly in New York, answering a related question from journalists.
Scholz and Erdogan held talks in New York on Tuesday and discussed the conflict in Ukraine, the grain agreement and bilateral issues.
Erdogan said on September 17 after the SCO summit in Samarkand that Ankara’s goal is full membership in the organisation.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation was founded in 2001. China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan are full-fledged members. Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia are observers, while Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Turkey are dialogue partners. At the SCO summit in Samarkand, memoranda were signed granting dialogue partner status to Egypt and Qatar. Bahrain, Maldives, Kuwait, UAE and Myanmar will also receive dialogue partner status. Furthermore, this year Belarus officially applied to join the SCO as a full-fledged member.
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