No time-frame for India, Pak's membership in SCO: Official

There is no time-frame on India and Pakistan's induction into the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation as the process of assuming membership depends on the countries concerned, a top Russian official said today.
"There is a technical procedure which is stated in the documents which is quite clear and quite simple. It does not state any time frame," Bakhtiyer Khakimov, the Russian President's Special Representative at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, told reporters in a video conference here.
"I cannot tell approximately how much time it will take. It does not depend on us. We are working with not only India and Pakistan but also partners and there is an understanding that the procedure actually may cover all the three applicants --India, Pakistan and Iran," he said when asked whether the three countries will become members of SCO under Russia's presidency this year.

In the annual Summit of the SCO in Dushanbe last year attended among others by Presidents of Russia, China, Afghanistan and Iran, the grouping cleared the administrative hurdle to grant membership to India, Pakistan and Iran.
Top officials back then had said the process to grant SCO membership to India and two other countries will be completed within a year.
The SCO comprises China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, and has Afghanistan, India, Iran, Mongolia and Pakistan as observers and Belarus, Turkey and Sri Lanka as dialogue partners.

Khakimov, who was speaking from Moscow, said that there is a "technical procedure" involved in the process to become member... The final decision is taken after the applicant has signed all the agreements and documents of SCO. There are 27 such agreements, Khakimov said.

"The documents to be signed also depend on the national legislature of the concerned country. It takes long or not too long depends on the country concerned," he added.
Asked whether the induction of India and Pakistan, who are frequently at loggerheads, in the SCO may pose roadblocks in the decision-making process, Khakomov said that by cooperating on international issues they may be able to bridge their differences.
"If India and Pakistan accede to the SCO eventually then it will be advantageous and beneficial to not only for the SCO but to Pakistan and India and other nations that accede to the SCO," he said.

"They (India and Pakistan) have huge economic potential. They have vertical influence so they are respected and in their activity (with SCO) they will contribute in meeting and reaching mutual goals," he added.