Iran will join next week the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a regional alliance including China and Russia, said Friday the head of Russian diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov.
“At the next meeting of the Committee of Heads of State (of the SCO), which will be held on July 4, Iran’s full membership will be formalized,” Lavrov told reporters from Moscow.
During this meeting, a memorandum will also be signed on “the obligations” of Belarus, an ally of Moscow, “which will also launch a procedure to fully join” the SCO, Lavrov added.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization, created in June 2001, currently brings together eight countries: Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, India and Pakistan.
Iran is currently very active in reducing its international isolation, by linking itself more with China and Russia, by reconciling with its Arab neighbors but also by reducing tensions with Western countries.
In addition to the SCO, Tehran says it wants to integrate as quickly as possible another organization without Western members: that of the BRICS – which brings together South Africa, Brazil, China, India and Russia.
Iran, a simple observer of the SCO since 2005, had obtained its membership at a summit of the organization in 2021 in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan.