Iran officially becomes a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). What does this really mean?

The official news site of the Iranian government - IRNA - reported that Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi thanked all 8 SCO member states (China, Russia, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, India and Pakistan) for the opportunity to fully enter this organization created 20 years ago.

The Iranian media regard this step of Iran as "a great victory for the new president of Iran, who fully follows the policy established by the supreme leader Ali Khamenei."

Both Raisi and Khamenei have repeatedly stressed that Iran must "look to the East" in order not only to resist its economic isolation from the West, but also to find political support that would help it reach a new agreement on the nuclear program, solve problems under the FATF and strengthen the role in the regions of the Middle East and Asia.

On Friday, Chinese President Xi Jinping, addressing the SCO Heads of State Council via video link, said: “Today we will begin procedures to admit Iran as a SCO member state, as well as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Qatar as new dialogue partners. The growing SCO family will "build world peace, contribute to global development and protect international order."

At a September 17 meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that China is ready to work with Iran to strengthen coordination and cooperation in regional and international affairs, jointly promote negotiations on a nuclear agreement with Iran, adhere to the right direction and reach consensus as soon as possible.

The second important problem for all SCO member states is the situation in Afghanistan (the Taliban came to power), which has observer status in the SCO.

According to Indian expert Harsh Pant, "Tehran is facing problems emanating from neighboring Afghanistan, wants to better understand the surrounding regions, the consequences of the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, which will be felt primarily in Central Asia."

“The Russian Federation and Asian countries want the version of radical Islam not to spread to Central Asia. Despite the fact that Iran is led by a Shiite Islamic theocracy, Iran's presence "on board" the SCO allows us to develop a better policy and a more holistic approach to solving problems in the region, shows the growth of the international influence of the organization," Pant said.

The expert believes that "Iran is in the same camp as China and Russia - in the sense that it is an anti-American, anti-Western power in the Middle East, which also allows it to more thoroughly develop its ties with Beijing and Moscow."

In an interview with ASTNA, Farhad Ibrahimov, an expert of the Valdai International Discussion Club,  emphasized that over the past decade Iran has paid special attention to the SCO, considering it an effective organization capable of responding to global security threats in the Greater Eurasia region.

“Against the background of events in Afghanistan, from which Tehran cannot stay away, the SCO and Iran need each other. Iran has extensive experience in fighting radicalism and there is a need for cooperation on this issue. Iran is also an “entrance gate” between the SCO and the Middle East, many of whose countries are striving to join this international organization,” Ibrahimov stressed.

In his opinion, there is a significant demographic expansion of the SCO (83 million people live in Iran), regional - through the attraction of Saudi Arabia, Turkey and other countries, important for it, to the SCO, as well as the strengthening of political coordination of the major world powers.

Ibrahimov believes that such integration will further alarm the West, in particular the Biden administration.

“I do not exclude that some forces in the West will do everything possible to split any coalition that may arise within the SCO. This can be used to exploit the existing contradictions between the SCO members, for example, India and Pakistan, Iran and Pakistan. In this sense, the task of the SCO and its initiators - the Russian Federation and China - is to achieve a reasonable balance so that there are no quarrels between its members,” Ibrahimov said in an interview with ASTNA.

The growing role of economic projects

According to the Valdai Club expert, while the SCO focuses its attention on security and politics issues, Iran's accession to it can stimulate the development of economic projects.

“For example, China looks at the SCO with “economic eyes” as an integrating structure of attractive economic projects (“One Belt, One Road” is a broad view of the Great Silk Road). I think that the admission to the SCO of Iran, a key link in this trade and transport chain, can become a driver for expanding the tasks of the SCO,” Ibrahimov said.

Note that China insists on the creation of a free trade zone in the SCO region, the organization of infrastructure for investments (so far only an interbank association has been created in the SCO), and the entry of the SCO countries into the WTO.

In fact, the SCO includes both the largest fuel producers and the largest buyers of hydrocarbons. The region is covered by a huge network of oil and gas pipelines.

The issues of the use of water resources are being studied - an urgent problem of the modern world.

Industry and science in the SCO member states are developing rapidly, which is recognized in the West.

The total territory of the SCO member states exceeds 35 million km², that is, 60% of the territory of Eurasia. The total population of the SCO countries is approximately 3.4 billion people (2021) - half of the world's population.

Thus, any change in this organization could have global implications.

As for Azerbaijan, it has an important status of a dialogue partner in the SCO, which is assigned to key regional players.

So far, Azerbaijan is satisfied with this format of maintaining contacts with the SCO members, and the country is monitoring the effectiveness of the steps of this organization, taking into account the prospects of joining it. — 0—