The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is not putting off Azerbaijan and Armenia's membership; their membership requires consensus, former SCO Secretary General (2016-2018) Rashid Alimov said in an interview with TASS.

"The procedure for admitting new member states [to the SCO] is clearly defined and has repeatedly stood the test of time. Admission decisions are made by consensus. In the history of the SCO, not a single application has been rejected. Each application is carefully and thoroughly reviewed on an individual basis. It may seem that the process is being delayed, but this is not the case," Alimov noted, as he commenting on the process of accession of Azerbaijan and Armenia to the SCO.

The problem is not the speed of consideration of applications, but the continuous nature of the process, the former SCO Secretary General emphasized.

“The SCO does not make quick decisions,” Alimov added.