Iran signs memorandum to join Shanghai Cooperation Organisation

As leaders meet in Uzbekistan, the eight-member regional physique is poised so as to add Iran to its ranks.

Iran has signed a Memorandum of Obligations to turn into a everlasting member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a central Asian safety physique, the Iranian overseas minister mentioned.

“By signing the doc for full membership of the SCO, now Iran has entered a brand new stage of assorted financial, industrial, transit and power cooperation,” Hossein Amirabdollahian wrote on social media.

The assertion got here as leaders from China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan headed to the latter’s metropolis of Samarkand for a summit of the eight-member SCO, a safety group fashioned by Beijing and Moscow as a counterweight to United States affect.

Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran, and Mongolia are observer nations, whereas the organisation has six “dialogue companions”: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Turkey.

Final yr, the quickly increasing SCO authorized Iran’s software for accession, whereas the federal government in Tehran referred to as on members to assist it type a mechanism to avert sanctions imposed by the West over its disputed nuclear programme.

Reporting from the Silk Street oasis of Samarkand, Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar mentioned Iran’s full membership is predicted to turn into efficient in April 2023.

He added that the SCO, the world’s largest regional organisation consisting of 40 p.c of the world’s inhabitants and 30 p.c of worldwide gross home product (GDP), needs to additional increase.

“Belarus can be formally going to signal the paperwork that its membership shall be initiated,” Serdar mentioned. “Qatar and Saudi Arabia are additionally anticipated to turn into new dialogue companions.”

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was among the many leaders to attend the summit in Samarkand and was anticipated to fulfill his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in keeping with Iranian media.

Iran’s financial system has been hit arduous since 2018, when then-US President Donald Trump unilaterally deserted a landmark nuclear deal signed between Iran and world powers, together with Russia and China.

Months of oblique talks between Iran and US President Joe Biden’s administration have hit a lifeless finish over a number of obstacles to reviving the nuclear pact, beneath which the Iranian authorities agreed to curbs on its nuclear programme in return for the lifting of sanctions.