Belarusian MPs ratify amendments to SCO budget agreement

MINSK, 3 June (BelTA) – During a meeting of the third session of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of Belarus, Belarusian MPs ratified a protocol amending the agreement on the procedure for forming and executing the SCO budget dated 1 December 2017, BelTA has learned.

According to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Budget and Finance, Belarus became a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) on 4 July 2024, assuming financial obligations to pay its share of contributions to the organization.

Under the 1 December 2017 agreement on the procedure for forming and executing the SCO budget, the U.S. dollar is designated as the organization’s budgetary currency. Consequently, all contributions are also remitted in this currency.

The protocol amends Article 2 of the agreement, allowing member states, in coordination with the SCO Secretariat, to pay their annual budget contributions either in U.S. dollars or in other currencies.

As Belarusian Minister of Finance Vladislav Tatarinovich noted while presenting the bill in the Oval Hall, the SCO budget is formed for the fiscal year from the assessed contributions of member states. It is designed to financially support the tasks and functions of the SCO’s permanent bodies, which currently include the Secretariat located in Beijing and the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure operating in Tashkent.

“The memorandum on obligations of the Republic of Belarus sets our assessed contribution to the SCO budget at 5.8%. Belarus has already paid its contributions to the SCO budget for 2025–2026, and issues regarding the payment of the contribution for the next year are currently in the pipeline,” the minister noted.

Due to current geopolitical factors and restrictions on international settlements for certain states, meeting obligations to pay annual contributions to the SCO budget in U.S. dollars has become difficult. “In this regard, it became necessary to address the issue of using alternative currencies for such payments. On 18 November 2025, during a meeting of the SCO Heads of Government Council in Moscow, a protocol was signed to amend the agreement on the procedure for forming and executing the budget of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, providing for the possibility of paying contributions to the organization’s budget not only in U.S. dollars but also in other currencies,” the Belarusian finance minister noted.

Photos by Vitaly Pivovarchik/BelTA