Hosted by India, the virtual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) took place on July 4.
The summit has officially announced Iran’s membership in the Organization. Iran has joined the SCO as the ninth member nation.
Some media reports say the Eurasian political and security group seeks to expand its influence by accepting Iran as a member.
Meanwhile, Belarus signed a memorandum of obligations, which launched a membership procedure for the country.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko expects his country to become full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in the near future.
When both Iran and Belarus, which have close ties to Moscow, become full members of the SCO it will expand the grouping's western flank in both Europe and Asia.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is a Eurasian political, economic, international security and defense organization. It is the world's largest regional organization in terms of geographic scope and population, covering approximately 60% of the area of Eurasia, 40% of the world population. Its combined GDP is around 20% of global GDP.
The SCO now has nine full members — China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Belarus (September 16, 2022) is an acceding member.
Besides, Afghanistan, Belarus, and Mongolia are four observer states.
SCO’s dialogue partners include Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Egypt, Nepal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka and Turkiye.
Bahrain, Kuwait, Maldives, Myanmar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are upcoming dialogue partners.
ACEAN, CIS, Turkmenistan and the United Nations are guest attendances.
