International contacts of the SCO are currently regulated by the Interim Scheme of Relations between the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and other international organisations and states (adopted by foreign ministers in November 2002).
The Interim Scheme allows representatives of non-SCO states as well as international organisations to attend the meetings of the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers as guests, as well as consultations among foreign ministries on political issues, and allows the SCO to take part in events held by other international associations. The SCO is represented in the international arena by the current chairman of the Council of Foreign Ministers or the Council of National Coordinators.
SCO is pursuing international cooperation in many areas.
At the meeting of the SCO heads of state on June 17, 2004 in Tashkent, participants approved the rules on the status of SCO observers and named Mongolia as the first observer state with the organisation.
In late September 2004, the ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in Beijing sent a message from the leadership in Pakistan to the SCO Executive Secretary seeking observer status for Pakistan with SCO. Iran and India filed similar applications in February and March 2005, respectively.
On July 5, 2005 in Astana, heads of SCO member states granted observer status to Pakistan, Iran and India.
To promote cooperation with the observer states in combating terrorism, on January 14, 2008 the foreign ministers approved the Regulations Governing Interactions between the Regional Antiterrorist Structure and States and International Intergovernmental Organisations (Forums) which have been granted observer status with the SCO.
The Council of the Heads of State which met in Tashkent on June 17, 2004 was attended by the head of Afghanistan's Interim Administration Khamid Karzai who was a guest of President Karimov of Uzbekistan. The Afghan head of state also accepted an invitation to attend the SCO summit in Shanghai on June 15, 2006 (as a guest of the PRC leader who is its chairman).
Under an agreement reached at the time between the SCO heads of state and Afghanistan, a protocol was signed in November 2005 between the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan on the creation of a contact group between SCO and Afghanistan. Under the protocol, the contact group was to include the permanent representatives of the SCO member states at the SCO Secretariat in Beijing, the secretariat's officials and the senior diplomats of the Afghan Embassy in China. The group held its first meeting in Beijing in February 2006.
The SCO Summit in Bishkek in August 2007 was attended for the first time by Turkmen President Berdymukhammedov as the guest of the chairman.
On December 9, 2005, the Belarusian ambassador to the PRC handed in a message from Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko to the SCO executive secretary with an official application for observer status at the organisation.
On March 28, 2006, the SCO executive secretary received a message from Sri Lankan President Mahind Rajapaks addressed to the SCO Council of Heads of State asking that Sri Lanka be granted observer status at the SCO.
In July 2007, the Foreign Minister of Nepal S. Pradhan sent letters to the foreign ministers of SCO states seeking observer status for her country with the organisation.
Countries such as Thailand, Turkey, the Republic of Korea, the United States and Japan have demonstrated interest in interacting with the SCO in various formats.
Contact is also being pursued with some international organisations.
On December 2, 2004, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously passed a resolution granting observer status to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. SCO representatives took part in high-level UN meetings with regional organisations, and the SCO was represented at other UN sponsored events. SCO executive secretary Zhang Deguang addressed the jubilee session of the UN General Assembly in September 2005.
In mid-April 2005, a memorandum of understanding was signed in Beijing between the secretariats of the SCO and CIS, and at the end of April in Jakarta a memorandum of understanding was signed between the secretariats of the SCO and ASEAN.
A memorandum of understanding between the secretariats of the SCO of the Eurasec Integration Commission was signed in Beijing in May 2006. Similar documents were signed with the CSTO Secretariat (October 2007), the Economic Cooperation Organisation (December, 2007) and the ESCATO Secretariat (January 2008).
Under the charter, new members may be admitted. In 2006, Pakistan filed an official application for full SCO membership. Similar applications were filed by Iran in 2007 and 2008.
In the absence of a mechanism for SCO expansion, the heads of state at the summit in Shanghai agreed to impose a temporary moratorium on the admission of new members and observers. In 2008, the participants of the meeting of the SCO heads of state in Dushanbe decided to form a panel of experts to consider political (for example, membership criteria), legal, financial and organisational aspects of SCO enlargement. On that occasion, the heads of state meeting in the capital of Tajikistan, they approved the regulations on SCO dialogue partners which gives interested countries and organisations legal grounds for cooperating with the SCO in selected areas and on specific projects without full membership in the organisation.