On 12 January 2017, SCO Secretary-General Rashid Alimov met with Nepalese Ambassador to China Leela Mani Paudyal in the SCO headquarters.
The SCO Secretary-General congratulated Leela Mani Paudyal on the presentation of his credentials and on assuming the office of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Nepal to the People's Republic of China.
They discussed a broad range of issues associated with Nepal's activities as an SCO Dialogue Partner.
The Nepalese Ambassador assured the SCO Secretary-General of his country's willingness to closely cooperate with the organisation in all the key areas of its activities.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation is comprised of six member states, six observer nations and six dialogue partners.
Under the Regulations on the SCO Dialogue Partner Status adopted in 2008, the status is granted to states and organisations that share SCO goals and principles and want to establish relations of equal and mutually beneficial partnership with the SCO.
At this point, decisions have been taken to grant dialogue partner status to the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, the Republic of Turkey, the Kingdom of Cambodia, the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Republic of Armenia and the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal.
A ceremony for the signing of a Memorandum on Granting Nepal the Status of Dialogue Partner of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation was held in the SCO headquarters in Beijing, China, on 22 March 2016.