Iran Press/ Asia: On Friday (September 17th) in 2021, The leaders of the eight-member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization announced their agreement with the change of the membership of the Islamic Republic of Iran from an observer member to a full member and signed the relevant documents.
Later, the leaders of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and India expressed hope that the organization's initiative in the international community would increase given Iran's authority in the world.
Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi and his Tajik counterpart Emomali Rahmon in Tajikistan's capital Dushanbe, during the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.
"We expect [SCO] leaders to sign a memorandum on Iran’s commitments to join the organization, after which Iran would fulfill appropriate commitments in accordance with the procedures and complete its accession to the organization," SCO Secretary-General Zhang Ming said. The decision to admit Iran as a full member was made at last year’s SCO summit, he recalled.
According to Zhang Ming, Belarus recently submitted an application to join the SCO as a member country.
"The SCO is currently actively discussing Belarus’s application, and major coordination work is underway on behalf of the Secretariat. We believe there will eventually be consensus," Zhang Ming said.
SCO expansionApart from Iran and Belarus, many countries would like to become SCO member countries, observers, or partners, Zhang Ming added.
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"Hopefully, the SCO would play a more important role in maintaining regional security and stability, expanding the range of interests shared by SCO member countries and contributing to the development of a global management system in a more just and prudent direction," the SCO secretary-general said. In an interview with TASS, he reiterated that the SCO was an open organization.
"We would welcome any country that shares the `Shanghai spirits’ and complies with the SCO Charter to join the SCO," he concluded, pledging active efforts on behalf of his team to facilitate that.
The SCO summit is scheduled for September 15-16. The organization currently includes Russia, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran, and Mongolia hold the status of observers, while Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Turkey are partner countries.
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