Member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is an international alliance that consists of 8 member states and 3 observers from Eurasia. It was established on 26 April 1996 as Shanghai Five. Of the 8 member states and 3 observers, SCO currently also have 3 dialogue partners and 3 guest attendance entries.

  Members   Observers   Dialogue Partners   Observer applicants   Disputed territories

Member states

Flag	Country	Capital	Area (km²)	Population (2016)	Density (/km²)	GDP per cap. (PPP)[1]	HDI[2]	Currency	Official languages	Leaders	Accession
	India Republic of India	New Delhi	3,287,240	1,284,480,000	364.4	8,484	0.640	Indian rupee (₹) (INR)	Hindi (Devanagari script), English & 21 others. Also see Languages of India	Head of State: Ram Nath Kovind Head of Government: Narendra Modi	2017-06-09
	Pakistan Islamic Republic of Pakistan	Islamabad	796,095	192,779,818	214.3	4,749	0.538	Pakistani rupee (PKR)	Urdu (National) English	Head of State: Arif Alvi Head of Government: Imran Khan	2017-06-09
	China People's Republic of China	Beijing	9,640,011	1,374,820,000	139.6	13,224	0.727	Renminbi (Chinese yuan, ¥) (CNY)	Standard Chinese[3] written in simplified characters[3] see also languages of China	Head of State: Xi Jinping Head of Government: Li Keqiang	1996-04-26
	Kazakhstan Republic of Kazakhstan	Astana	2,724,900	17,670,900	5.94	24,108	0.788	Kazakhstani tenge (₸) (KZT)	Kazakh (National) Russian	Head of State: Nursultan Nazarbayev Head of Government: Serik Akhmetov	1996-04-26
	Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyz Republic	Bishkek	199,900	6,008,600	27.4	3,262	0.655	Kyrgyzstani som (KGS)	Kyrgyz (National) Russian	Head of State: Almazbek Atambayev Head of Government: Temir Sariev	1996-04-26
	Russia Russian Federation	Moscow	17,075,400	146,519,759	8.3	24,449	0.798	Russian ruble (₽) (RUB)	Russian also see Languages of Russia	Head of State: Vladimir Putin Head of Government: Dmitry Medvedev	1996-04-26
	Tajikistan Republic of Tajikistan	Dushanbe	143,100	8,352,000	48.6	2,698	0.624	Tajikistani somoni (TJS)	Tajik Persian	Head of State: Emomalii Rahmon Head of Government: Oqil Oqilov	1996-04-26
	Uzbekistan Republic of Uzbekistan	Tashkent	447,400	31,022,500	61.4	5,630	0.675	Uzbekistani som (UZS)	Uzbek	Head of State: Shavkat Mirziyoyev Head of Government: Abdulla Oripov	2001-06-15

Military personnel

The following list is sourced from the 2018 edition of "The Military Balance" published annually by the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

	Country	Active military	Reserve military	Paramilitary	Total	Per 1000 capita (total)	Per 1000 capita (active)
	China[4]	2,035,000	510,000	1,500,000	4,045,000	2.9	1.5
	India[5]	1,440,000	2,096,000	1,585,950	5,121,950	4	1.1
	Kazakhstan[6]	39,000	0	31,500	70,500	3.8	2.1
	Kyrgyzstan[7]	10,900	0	9,500	20,400	3.5	1.9
	Pakistan[8]	653,000	0	0	653,000	3.1	3.1
	Russian Federation[9][Note 1]	1,013,628	2,572,500	2,310,859	5,896,987	41.5	7.1
	Tajikistan[10]	8,800	0	7,500	16,300	1.9	1
	Uzbekistan[11]	48,000	0	20,000	68,000	2.3	1.6

Observer states

Except for Afghanistan, the observers are due to be accorded full member status at the 2014 SCO summit.[12]

Flag	Country	Capital	Area (km²)	Population (2016)	Density (/km²)	GDP per cap. (PPP)[1]	HDI[2]	Currency	Official languages	Leaders	Status gained
	Afghanistan Islamic Republic of Afghanistan	Kabul	652,230	27,101,365	43.5	1,944	0.465	Afghan afghani (AFN)	Pashto Dari	Head of State and Government: Ashraf Ghani	2012-06-07
	Belarus Republic of Belarus	Minsk	207,595	9,498,700	45.8	18,246	0.798	Belarusian ruble (BYR)	Belarusian Russian	Head of State: Alexander Lukashenko Head of Government: Andrei Kobyakov	2010-04-28
	Iran Islamic Republic of Iran	Tehran	1,648,195	79,011,700	48.0	17,443	0.766	Iranian rial (IRR)	Persian	Head of State and Government: Ali Khamenei & Hassan Rouhani	2005-06-23
	Mongolia	Ulaanbaatar	1,564,115	3,067,550	1.75	11,919	0.727	Mongolian tögrög (₮) (MNT)	Mongolian	Head of State: Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj Head of Government: Chimediin Saikhanbileg	2004-06-17

Notes

1. The potential reserve personnel of Russia may be as high as 20 million, depending on how the figures are counted. However, an est. 2 million have seen military service within the last 5 years.

Dialogue partner entries

Flag	Country	Capital	Area (km²)	Population (2016)	Density (/km²)	GDP per cap. (PPP)[1]	HDI[2]	Currency	Official languages	Leaders	Status gained
	Armenia Republic of Armenia	Yerevan	29,743	2,998,600	102.0	8,164	0.733	Armenian dram (AMD)	Armenian	Head of State: Serzh Sargsyan Head of Government: Hovik Abrahamyan	2015-07-10
	Azerbaijan Republic of Azerbaijan	Baku	86,600	9,696,800	109.0	17,761	0.751	Azerbaijani manat (AZN)	Azeri	Head of State: Ilham Aliyev Head of Government: Artur Rasizade	2015-07-10
	Cambodia Kingdom of Cambodia	Phnom Penh	181,035	15,626,444	84.0	3,276	0.555	Cambodian riel (KHR)	Khmer	Monarch: Norodom Sihamoni Head of Government: Hun Sen	2015-07-10
	Nepal Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal	Kathmandu	147,181	28,431,500	180.0	2,388	0.548	Nepalese rupee (NPR)	Nepali	Head of State: Bidhya Devi Bhandari Head of Government: Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli	2015-07-10
	Sri Lanka Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka	Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte (Administrative) Colombo (Commercial)	65,610	20,966,000	309.0	10,410	0.757	Sri Lankan rupee (LKR)	Sinhalese Tamil	Head of State and Government: Maithripala Sirisena	2009-06-16
	Turkey Republic of Turkey	Ankara	783,562	78,741,053	102.0	19,698	0.761	Turkish lira (TRY)	Turkish	Head of State: Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Head of Government: Binali Yildirim	2012-06-07

Future participation

Observer Iran has submitted an application for full membership.[13] Meanwhile, in 2012 Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, East Timor, Nepal and Sri Lanka applied for observer status within the organization.[14] Egypt[15] and Syria has also submitted an application for observer status,[13] while Egypt, Israel,[16] Maldives and Ukraine have applied for dialogue partner status.[17][18] Saudi Arabia,[19][20][21] Bahrain and Qatar has officially applied to join the SCO.[22][23]

Guest attendance entries

• Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
• Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)
• Turkmenistan

Notes

References

1. at purchasing power parity, per capita, in international dollars (rounded IMF 2012)
2. at Human Development Index (New 2013 Estimates for 2012)
3. Law of the People's Republic of China on the Standard Spoken and Written Chinese Language (Order of the President No.37)
4. IISS 2018, pp. 249-250
5. IISS 2018, pp. 260
6. IISS 2018, pp. 188
7. IISS 2018, pp. 190
8. IISS 2018, pp. 291
9. IISS 2018, pp. 192
10. IISS 2018, pp. 207
11. IISS 2018, pp. 214
12. http://macedoniaonline.eu/content/view/25830/53/
13. "Syria applies for observer status at Shanghai security bloc — Russian Foreign Ministry". Russian News Agency TASS. 2015-02-13. Retrieved 2015-07-11.
14. "Azerbaijan asks to join a new alliance of China and Russia".
15. "Syria, Egypt may join Shanghai Cooperation Organization as observers". Russian News Agency TASS. 2015-06-05. Retrieved 2015-12-21.
16. "Syria, Israel, Egypt willing to join SCO's activity - president's special envoy". Interfax. 2016-06-23. Archived from the original on 2016-08-16. Retrieved 2016-06-24.
17. "Egypt applies to become dialogue partner of Shanghai security bloc — Kremlin aide". Russian News Agency TASS. 2015-07-06. Retrieved 2015-08-15.
18. "Azerbaijan intends to become SCO observer". 2015-02-10. Archived from the original on 2015-08-02. Retrieved 2015-08-15.
19. "以色列和沙特提交加入上合组织的相关申请". 环球网. 2019-08-15. Retrieved 2019-11-03.
20. "В МИД рассказали о странах, которые хотят участвовать в работе ШОС". RIA Novosti. 2019-08-15. Retrieved 2019-08-21.
21. "Саудовская Аравия устремилась в ШОС". Abkhazian Network News Agency. 2018-10-18. Retrieved 2019-08-22.
22. "Катар, Бахрейн и Израиль просят о приеме в ШОС". Мир 24. 2017-12-05. Retrieved 2019-08-22.
23. "SCO receives membership requests from Qatar, Bahrain". Interfax. 2017-12-05. Archived from the original on 2017-12-07. Retrieved 2019-08-22.

Bibliography

• International Institute for Strategic Studies (3 February 2010). The Military Balance 2010. London: Routledge. ISBN 1857435575.
• International Institute for Strategic Studies (2 March 2011). The Military Balance 2011. London: Routledge. ISBN 1857436067.
• International Institute for Strategic Studies (7 March 2012). The Military Balance 2012. London: Routledge. ISBN 1857436423.
• International Institute for Strategic Studies (14 March 2013). The Military Balance 2013. London: Routledge. ISBN 1857436806.
• International Institute for Strategic Studies (3 February 2014). The Military Balance 2014. London: Routledge. ISBN 9781857437225.
• International Institute for Strategic Studies (14 February 2018). The Military Balance 2018. London: Routledge. ISBN 9781857439557.