SCO Secretary-General Rashid Alimov and Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov signed the document at the SCO headquarters in Beijing (China).

“The status of dialogue partner in the SCO will allow the Republic of Azerbaijan to swiftly join multifaceted and diversified activity of the organization through participation in the existing mechanisms of cooperation,” Alimov said at the ceremony.

He said this is especially important this year as the SCO marks its 15th anniversary. The organization’s summit will be held in Uzbekistan’s capital Tashkent this June and the preparation for the event "is of priority importance in the work of our group."

Elmar Mammadyarov said that the signing of memorandum will allow Azerbaijan to start dialogue on three main directions of the SCO activities – political-diplomatic, trade-economic and cultural-humanitarian. He said Azerbaijan will actively join the process.

Armenia and Nepal are also preparing to sign similar documents this month.

The SCO comprises six member-states - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The summit in Tashkent is expected to confirm that India and Pakistan will join the organization. Iran and Afghanistan, which have a status of observer states, have requested to join the SCO as full-fledged members.

The number of countries in the SCO family, both observer states and dialogue partners, reaches 18. Sri-Lanka, Turkey, Cambodia, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Nepal have statuses of dialogue partners in the SCO.