The Azadi Tower marking the western entrance to Tehran. Iran. Photo credit: Blondinrikard Fröberg / commons.wikimedia.org (CC BY 2.0)
At the next summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), Iran will become its full member, TASS reports. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian recalled that the meeting of the association is scheduled for July. It will take place online. The chair will be taken by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Representatives of Iran were invited to the meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the BRICS countries, held on June, 1 in South Africa. The agenda also included issues related to the membership of countries in the BRICS and SCO, national currencies and the abolition of the dollar.
Last autumn, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi joined the SCO summit, which was held in Samarkand. Back then, the Islamic Republic received the status of a member state of the association.
The number of applications from countries that want to join the SCO is increasing. The talks with Bahrain, Kuwait, the Maldives, Myanmar and the United Arab Emirates have approached the final stage. There are other applications in the portfolio as well.
The emergence of new countries that want to become members of the SCO opens up additional opportunities that need to be implemented.
In addition, activities aimed at improving work in the SCO are now being stepped up. There is no talk of a radical restructuring of the SCO; reformatting of existing mechanisms is being prepared.
At the moment, the association includes eight countries - Russia, India, China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Pakistan. Mongolia, Belarus, Iran and Afghanistan are observers, Turkey, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Cambodia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Qatar and Saudi Arabia have the status of dialogue partners.
Russkiy Mir
