Lavrov: First act of the Astana summit will be the official acceptance of Belarus as full member of SCO

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov paid an official visit to Belarus, where he held talks with his counterpart Sergey Aleinik, President Alexander Lukashenko and speakers of both chambers of parliament.

The main topic of the visit was steps to bring the two countries' foreign policy closer together and several initiatives in the Eurasian format.

Lavrov stated to President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko that the issue of its full-fledged admission to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) will be the first act at its summit in Astana on 3-4 July. 

"Everything has been decided on the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, all the agreements have already been fixed. The very first act of the summit in Astana will be the official acceptance of Belarus as a full member of the SCO. Throughout the rest of the summit, Belarus will participate on an equal footing with all other members"

Sergey Lavrov Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs

Following the talks with Aleinik, the parties discussed bilateral cooperation, including within the framework of the Union State (a document on the foreign policy dimension of integration was signed). 

The statement was made during a meeting with Natalia Kochanova, Chairperson of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of Belarus, Lavrov said that the BRICS countries had decided to pause in expanding their membership. This is reported by the official website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia.

He also added that work was underway to create categories of partner countries that would precede full BRICS membership.

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