On 17 January 2023, a ceremony to sign the Protocol on the results of consultations between authorised representatives of the member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and an authorised representative of the Republic of Belarus was held in Varanasi, India.
The Belarusian side expressed its readiness to step up the implementation of the international legal procedures for joining the SCO as a full member.
The decision to initiate the procedure for admitting the Republic of Belarus to the SCO was made at a meeting of the SCO Heads of State Council in Samarkand in September 2022.
