Pakistan joins SCO as full member

Pakistan has become full member of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) after signing Memorandum of Obligations (MoOs) in SCO's Heads of State Summit at Tashkent.

The memorandum was signed by Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's adviser on foreign affairs Sartaj Aziz reports the Express Tribune.

The document was jointly signed by the Foreign Ministers of six SCO member states, Secretary General SCO and the Adviser on Foreign Affairs.

Pakistan's Foreign Office in a statement said, "Pakistan has been an observer at SCO since 2005. It has been a regular participant in the meetings of SCO and was the first SCO observer to apply for full membership in 2010,"

Islamabad's request for membership was approved in principle at the SCO heads of state summit in Ufa, Russia last July.

India formally joined the SCO after signing a Memorandum of Obligation and became a full member of the group.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation is mainly focused on security, but critics say that little has been done to prepare the region's weaker states for potential fallout from instability in Afghanistan on the bloc's southern border.