Iran to become full-fledged SCO member in July

Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has said that Iran’s membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) will take place in July.

“We pursued our membership in regional alliances such as the SCO and BRICS. Our membership in the SCO will take place in July, and we will announce Iran's permanent membership,” Abdollahian said while addressing a gathering of the heads of Iranian diplomatic missions in Tehran on June 1, according to the Tasnim news agency.

Referring to the emergence of new economic powers in Asia, the minister said that “undoubtedly, Iran is a main actor at the regional level and the global level”.

He also said that the Iranian foreign ministry is seriously following the path of neutralizing the West's oppressive sanctions against the Islamic Republic, noting that the diplomatic path for their removal is also open.

In September 2022, Amir-Abdollahian signed a memorandum of obligations, a key step in becoming a full member of the SCO in a meeting with the Secretary General of the SCO Zhang Ming.

Iran’s permanent membership was approved during the 21st Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the SCO in the Tajik capital Dushanbe in September 2021. The country obtained observer status in the organization in June 2005, and in 2008, applied for full membership.