Key Points:
- China has officially confirmed support for Azerbaijan’s full membership.
- Azerbaijan joined the SCO as a dialogue partner in 2016, now seeks full entry.
- President Aliyev says India is trying to block the bid
TIANJIN/BAKU: China has formally endorsed Azerbaijan’s bid to become a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a move that could reshape the regional bloc’s political balance and deepen Baku’s ties with Eurasian partners, Chinese media reports said.
Azerbaijan, which first joined the SCO as a dialogue partner in 2016, has in recent months intensified its diplomatic campaign for full membership.
President Aliyev has framed accession as both “inevitable” and a matter of “historic will,” while dismissing opposition from India, which he accuses of attempting to block Baku’s entry because of Azerbaijan’s close alliance with Pakistan.
“No country can stop the will of our people or the course of history,” Aliyev said earlier this week, vowing that Azerbaijan would never abandon its “brotherhood with Pakistan” despite external pressure.
During a bilateral meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Tianjin on the sidelines of the SCO Summit, Chinese President Xi Jinping said “China supports Azerbaijan in joining the SCO”, according to state media reports published by Xinhua, People’s Daily, and China Daily.
Xi also stressed that Beijing was ready to expand multilateral coordination with Baku under the SCO framework, marking the clearest signal yet of Chinese approval for Azerbaijan’s entry beyond its current dialogue partner status.
At the same gathering, leaders of SCO states adopted reforms under the “Tianjin Declaration,” merging the previous “observer” and “dialogue partner” categories into a new, single “SCO Partner” tier. Azerbaijani media reported that Baku will soon join this unified framework, strengthening its institutional foothold in the grouping.
China’s broader line at the summit was to call for taking the SCO “to a new level.” Hosting an SCO Plus leaders’ meeting, Beijing emphasised strengthening the forum’s role in regional stability and development, though it stopped short of naming specific membership outcomes in its official readouts.
At the broader summit, Beijing publicly pitched taking the SCO “to a new level” and hosted an SCO Plus leaders’ meeting, emphasising the need to strengthen the forum. Official Chinese readouts highlighted Beijing’s vision of deepening cooperation and building the bloc’s institutional capacity.
China’s public support adds more weight to Azerbaijan’s bid, particularly as SCO enlargement has been a recurring theme in recent years, with Iran admitted as a full member in 2023 and Belarus set to complete accession procedures.
Analysts note that Baku’s strategic position—bridging the Caspian Sea, Central Asia, and the South Caucasus—gives it growing importance in China’s Belt and Road Initiative as well as in energy corridors linking East and West. Azerbaijan has also expanded defence, trade, and infrastructure ties with several SCO states, including Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation established in 2001 by China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. In June 2017, it expanded to eight states, with India and Pakistan. Iran and Palestine joined the group in July 2023, and Belarus in July 2024. Several countries are engaged as observers or dialogue partners.
For Baku, full membership would not only bolster its international standing but also embed it more firmly in a Eurasian security and economic framework at a time of shifting global alignments. For Beijing, bringing Azerbaijan into the fold could help consolidate China’s influence in the South Caucasus and strengthen the SCO’s role as a counterweight to Western-led alliances.
