Iran’s membership in SCO will give large countries more room for maneuver - Iranian official

MOSCOW, February 3. /TASS/. Iran’s full-fledged membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) will give large countries more room for maneuver, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s top adviser on international affairs, Ali Akbar Velayati, said on Wednesday. Velayati noted the importance of Iran’s cooperation with Russia in strengthening SCO and BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa). "It is necessary that Iran comes to full-fledged membership in SCO. This will give more room for maneuver to large countries," Velayati told a roundtable at the Russian Strategic Research Institute. Velayati, who also heads the Center for Strategic Research, is visiting Moscow on the invitation of Russian Strategic Research Institute’s director Leonid Reshetnikov. SCO The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is a permanent regional international association, the establishment of which was announced on June 15, 2001, in Shanghai. The organization brings together Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Iran, Belarus, Afghanistan and Mongolia currently hold observer status in the organization. During the SCO summit in Ufa on July 9 and July 10 the start of the admission procedure for India and Pakistan was announced. The leaders of the SCO member-countries also decided to grant Belarus observer status, while Azerbaijan, Armenia, Cambodia and Nepal became dialogue partners. SCO priority spheres include joint fight against terrorism and extremism, cooperation in the spheres of education, energy, transport, and telecommunications. The total population of SCO countries is almost 1.6 billion people, and the total GDP of the member countries is $11.6 trillion. Read more