by Leaders Mena News Staff at Leaders Mena
The Saudi Cabinet approved today, Wednesday, the decision to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, as Riyadh builds a long-term partnership with China.
SPA said that KSA agreed to a memorandum on granting it the status of a dialogue partner in the SCO.
The organization is a political and security union of countries occupying a large area of Eurasia, including China, India, and Russia.
The organization was established in 2001 between Russia, China, and the former Soviet Union countries in Central Asia.
It then expanded to include India and Pakistan, looking to play a greater role in confronting Western influence in the region.
Iran also signed full membership documents to the organization last year.
Sources told Reuters that KSA discussed its accession to the organization was Chinese President Xi Jinping during his visit to it.
The sources added that the status of the dialogue partner will be a first step before granting the kingdom full membership in the medium term.
The decision comes after Saudi Aramco announced, on Tuesday, that it had increased its investments in China by several billion dollars.
As it completed a planned joint venture in northeastern China, it also acquired a stake in a private petrochemical group…
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