Although Belarus and Pakistan did not block Armenia’s candidacy, they did not support the country’s membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) at this stage.
“Pakistan is cooperating with Azerbaijan on this issue and, most likely, vetoed Armenia’s membership at the behest of the Azerbaijani side,” political scientist Armen Vardanyan told Radar Armenia, adding that he has a negative attitude towards membership.
“It will not bring any real benefits to Armenia. Currently, the country’s gaze is mainly directed towards Europe and integration processes with the European Union, and in this context, joining the SCO is more of a nonsense.”
According to him, Armenia is simultaneously pursuing a balancing policy, developing relations with both the West and the East, to appease Russia, including through the SCO. “In fact, the whole strategy is that Armenia has formally applied to join that structure, in the hope that Pakistan will block it. This is my opinion,” the political scientist said and emphasized that, in his opinion, Armenia should not be interested in joining the organization, since, by and large, it will not give Armenia anything.
Turning to the question of whether Armenia will join, he emphasized that if one country vetoes, membership does not take place. “In this case, Pakistan’s veto alone is enough for Armenia not to join that structure.”
Let us recall that the SCO summit was held in Tianjin from August 31 to September 1, and was attended by more than 20 heads of state, including Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
