YEREVAN — The Armenian government announced on Thursday plans to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a China-led grouping of 10 Eurasian states.
“Sharing the founding principles of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, namely territorial integrity, non-use of force and inviolability of borders, the Republic of Armenia has expressed a desire to become a member of the SCO,” the Armenian Foreign Ministry said in a one-sentence social media post.
The move was announced one week after Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan’s visit to China. Mirzoyan and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi reportedly agreed to strive to upgrade Chinese-Armenian relations to “strategic partnership.”
“We noted the strategic nature of our relations, and we see the mutual interest in levelling up these relations officially as well,” Mirzoyan told the South China Morning Post newspaper in an interview published on Thursday.
Armenia currently has the status of a “dialogue partner” in the SCO granted to it in 2016.
