SCO, BRICS put Iran’s membership on top of agenda
Two senior Russian officials said that the official expansion of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and BRICS, where Iran’s membership will most likely be decided, are at the top of the agendas of their respective upcoming summits.
Bakhtiyer Khakimov, Russia’s presidential representative for SCO affairs discussed the bloc’s agenda for the next summit on Saturday, according to Mehr news agency.
“Iran’s accession as a full member will be one of the key decisions of the July 4 summit that will take place in New Delhi via video conference,” he said.
“Iran has completed the mandatory procedures and will join the family of SCO member states at the New Delhi summit.”
Shanghai Cooperation Organization is a transcontinental political, economic, and security alliance, with a total of eight full members. Iran is currently an observer SCO country, but is set to become a full-time member of the charter.
Moreover, Khakimov said that at the upcoming SCO summit, a memorandum will also be signed regarding the obligations that Belarus would have if it is steadfast in its bid to obtain the status of a member state in the organization.
In addition to the SCO’s eight member states, Belarus, Iran, and Mongolia have been invited to the July 4 event as observer states.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has said that the country’s full membership in the SCO would be finalized in July during the upcoming summit of the association.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization was founded by China, Russia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan at a summit held in Shanghai in 2001.
China, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, India, and Pakistan are its current full members. Iran, Afghanistan, Belarus, and Mongolia are observer states.
Iran first applied for membership in the alliance 15 years ago. The approval of Iran’s candidacy came at a summit in the Tajik capital of Dushanbe in September 2021.
SCO member states contribute about 30 percent of global GDP, while 40 percent of the world’s population lives in SCO countries.
BRICS considers
expansion in August
BRICS expansion is on the agenda of the upcoming summit that will take place in South Africa in August, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday.
“A number of countries stated their intention to join BRICS in some way, and this, of course, is such an interesting event because it indicates the international authority of this integrational association,” he maintained.
“We expect the BRICS summit to take place in late August, and the expansion will be on the agenda for the BRICS member states to discuss.”
According to the spokesman, “There are certain nuances” regarding which expansion format would be better to adopt, and whether it should be adopted at all.
Peskov added that Russia is happy to see that more and more states display interest in BRICS, according to TASS.
In early June, Iran’s foreign minister said that the members of the BRICS group of emerging economies have welcomed the Islamic Republic’s potential accession to the powerful bloc. Iranian President Ebrahim Raeisi also said recently that Iran’s membership in BRICS will be materialized soon.