Iran to obtain full membership in The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)

After signing its first memorandum of obligations in Uzbekistan at this year's Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit to be held in Samarkand in September, Iran's accession to the full membership of the Euroasia-spanning organization will be finalized by April 2023, the Iranian Embassy in China disclosed to the Global Times on Tuesday. 

Earlier, Russia media outlet Sputnik reported on Monday that Iran is slated to join the SCO as a full-pledged member state this year and a memorandum of Iran's obligations as a SCO member will also be signed in Samarkand, citing a foreign ministry statement of the organization's rotating chair Uzbekistan.

As a country that has been long sanctioned and isolated by the US-led West, Iran, by joining the SCO that accounts for 40 percent of the world's population and 28 percent of global GDP, could expect a breakthrough in its geopolitical and economic status quo, observers said. 

Iran has also approached the SCO with a proposal to create a new single currency for carrying out trade among SCO members, in a push to counter the increasing weaponization of the US dollar-dominated global financial system, CGTN reported in June.

Tehran has also officially submitted its application to become a member of the BRICS group as of late June, three members of which are also part of the SCO - China, Russia and India, following a similar move by Argentina

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is a permanent intergovernmental international organisation, the creation of which was announced on 15 June 2001 in Shanghai (China) by the Republic of Kazakhstan, the People's Republic of China, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Tajikistan, and the Republic of Uzbekistan. It was preceded by the Shanghai Five mechanism.

The SCO's main goals are as follows: strengthening mutual trust and neighbourliness among the member states; promoting their effective cooperation in politics, trade, the economy, research, technology and culture, as well as in education, energy, transport, tourism, environmental protection, and other areas; making joint efforts to maintain and ensure peace, security and stability in the region; and moving towards the establishment of a democratic, fair and rational new international political and economic order.

The organisation has two permanent bodies — the SCO Secretariat based in Beijing and the Executive Committee of the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) based in Tashkent. The SCO Secretary-General and the Director of the Executive Committee of the SCO RATS are appointed by the Council of Heads of State for a term of three years. Vladimir Norov (Uzbekistan) and Jumakhon Giyosov (Tajikistan) have held these positions, respectively, since 1 January 2019.

Currently:

• the SCO comprises eight member states, namely the Republic of India, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the People's Republic of China, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Tajikistan, and the Republic of Uzbekistan;

• the SCO counts four observer states, namely the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, the Republic of Belarus, the Islamic Republic of Iran and Mongolia;

• the SCO has six dialogue partners, namely the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Republic of Armenia, the Kingdom of Cambodia, the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, the Republic of Turkey, and the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka.